For the average user, Windows 7 support, Blu-ray disc burning, and a feature Symantec has dubbed "cold imaging" are the most intriguing new features.

Though most imaging products have offered cold imaging--the ability to create a backup image using the recovery CD--for years, it's certainly a welcome addition to Ghost. (I've complained for ages about and other Symantec imaging products.) Ghost 15's version of the feature, which copies only entire partitions, performed quickly and perfectly in my tests. A notable annoyance: You must enter the program serial number each time you use the feature. Recovery doesn't require a serial number.

The only real drawbacks with Ghost relate to using the Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE)-based recovery CD. It's slow to boot, but more significantly it requires 1GB of RAM. While that may not seem like a lot these days, plenty of PCs top out at 512MB or less.

Unfortunately, the recovery CD has severe limitations, too. Once upon a time, in lieu of creating an image, Norton's recovery CDs offered a file browser that allowed copying at the file level. The browser is still there, but all file functions have been disabled. I wish Symantec would reinstate the file functions and stop assuming the worst of its users, who deserve to be treated as valued customers and not pirates.

IT managers in small and medium-size businesses will appreciate the ability to schedule conversion of images to VMware ESX 3.5i/4.0i and 3.5/4.0 virtual machine format. The new version also offers support for Microsoft's .