Theres a file called CDFS.VXD which allows me to see my audio CD tracks as WAV files, so can I use this instead of a ripper program?
Well, you can certainly use it, but in essence, CDFS.VXD *is* a ripper program, even though it is disguised as a device driver. After all, device drivers are just programs. And what it is doing is ripping, inasmuch as it is allowing you to digitally extract audio data from an audio CD (so far as I know, that’s the definition of “ripping”). True you can’t “execute” CDFS.VXD per se – you have to use some other program, such as Windows Explorer, as a front end… but CDFS.VXD is performing the digital audio extraction and passing the data to whatever program you make the request through, so I’d say it’s a ripper. And presumably it’s bound by the limitations applicable to all other rippers (i.e. its performance will depend upon the ability of your CD ROM drive to support digital audio extraction, and it may have the same problems as other rippers in terms of inexact data resulting from the lack of provision for digital error correction on audio CDs).
