Alcohol 120% is an amazing CD/DVD management program with many great features. Like many other similar programs, it includes basic CD burning, image creation, and copying functionalities. However, its most unique and useful feature is called “Virtual Drives.”

Essentially, this feature allows you to create virtual optical drives on your computer, which your OS thinks are actual physical drives. For example, you can make a virtual drive on your computer, make an image file out of a CD, and then put the image file in the virtual drive to use the CD. This basically eliminates the need for physical CDs! It’s also useful because some software online can be downloaded as an .iso or other disc image file, and you don’t have to go through the hassle of burning a disc and putting it into your computer physically. Extra features include “opening and closing” the virtual drive, and pretty much anything you could do with a real physical drive. One caveat, however: ugly copy protection on some discs may stop this feature from working because it relies on the physical disc. However most discs work with Alcohol 120%, and this software goes far beyond what most disc management software apps can possibly do because of just 1 feature: virtual optical drives.