Nero Burning ROM, commonly called just Nero, is a popular optical disc authoring program for Microsoft Windows and Linux by Nero AG, formerly Ahead Software. Now the program is usually a part of various software suites, most of which also bears the designation Nero.

The program's name is intended to be a play on words. Recording CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs is often known as "burning", and the infamous Roman Emperor Nero is said to have played his lyre as Rome burned. This pun is more obvious in the original German as the German name for Rome is Rom (a literal English translation would be Nero Burning ROMe). The program logo is an image of the Roman Colosseum in flames; while dramatic, it is historically inaccurate. Another mistake is that CD-ROM and DVD-ROM are read only media, pressed during manufacturing process. Proper names of media that can be "burned" are CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, etc.

Nero AG's software is available in multiple variations. Since version 6, Nero Buring ROM has been bundled with many other applications such as Nero Wave Editor (for editing audio files), Nero ImageDrive (for mounting virtual CDs), Nero BackItUp (for backup of file systems or whole disks) and Nero Recode (for backup of unencrypted DVDs and MPEG-4 conversions). Since version 7, Nero Vision (DVD authoring tool) is bundled in the Premium package.

As part of this bundling, the whole suite is called Nero followed by its major version number and a catchphrase which can vary by country (for example, Nero 7 Ultra Edition Enhanced in the United States, or Nero 7 Premium Reloaded in the United Kingdom and Australia); however, the core program is still called Nero Burning ROM.

The most commonly available Nero versions are the OEM suites, which are bundled with many optical disc recorders. Some of these suites do not include Nero Buring ROM program itself, instead providing less advanced application Nero Express.

Nero StartSmart is a small application, often bundled with Nero Burning ROM, that displays a number of operations available as soon as a blank optical disc is inserted. A number of operations increases if the program is run in expert mode.

(Rapidshare.com)