Daemon tools pro advanced with dte is best. But you need to pay for it. DTE allows you to cloak your virtual drivers from being detected by securom and safedisc. Occasionaly I have to download alcohol 120% to create an image but very rarely, only happened with fable the lost chapters recently.
Only software else than nod32 and windows that I don't use freeware instead.
Images work better than no cd exe's. With the image you can continue even when a new patch comes out while with a no cd exe you have to wait for one to be created which is compatible with the new patched version of the game.
