People who use Microsoft Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, they do not need to download 3rd party ISO mounting software. Windows 8 and Windows 10 come with the capability to mount ISO files and burn the ISO to a CD or DVD.
What is an ISO file?
ISO files are the files that contain the complete image of a disc. Such files are often used when transferring CD/DVD images over the internet. ISO file is created by copying an entire disc, from starting point to the end, into a file. An ISO file can’t be manipulated in a number of ways. It can be written to a CD or DVD, mounted as a virtual drive, or viewed with PowerISO.
An ISO image is a collection of files of an optical disc. A specific type of disc image composed of the data contents from every written sector on an optical disc, including the optical disc system. It was given the name of ISO after it was taken from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media. ISO Images can also be made from optical discs by disc managing software or from a collection of files by optical discs authoring software, or from a different disc image file by means of conversions.
Now, the virtual drive comes under the topic of ISO. So, what is a virtual drive? It is a type of logical drive which is used the process of virtualization. It is a typical driver that is natively installed in a virtual machine or virtual server by the hypervisor. It is also known as a virtual disc drive. It can also be defined as a cloud-based storage solution that is installed in a drive on a local computer.
How To Mount ISO Image Files On Windows
It is a piece of cake to mount an ISO file on windows. Just follow these steps:
Step 1 – Click right on the ISO file, select ‘Mount.’
Step 2 – Click on the option of ‘CD DVD Drive’ which will be seen in the Device and Drivers list. Double click on the virtual CD DVD driver to access the files.
It is easy to unmount the ISO files as well. All you have to do is to the right click on the drive and select the option of ‘eject.’ To burn the files to a physical CD, just right click on the original file and select ‘Burn this image.’
However, for those who are using Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, they would need software to mount the ISO files and here we present tools for ISO mounting programs for Microsoft Windows user. They are 100% free and do not need any kind of extra permission to download. Easy to use and fulfilling your demands, this is just the right kind of software you’ve been looking for if you are looking for the best ISO mounter software.
There are certain parameters that you need to take into your account while choosing the ISO mounting software:
- Company’s history and how serious they are about customer satisfaction
- What is different about their product from the rest
- What are the features provided?
- How easy is the GUI?
- Number of virtual drives supported
- Bug fixing etc.
So here have enlisted for you the best ISO mounter software for windows:
Best ISO Mounting Software for Windows
1. Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel
This was re-released in 2013, and this free utility software enables users of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 to mount ISO disk image as virtual CD–ROM drives. It comes very useful for reading disk images to install software or recover backup files.
However, one of the drawbacks of this software is that it is not supported by Microsoft. So you might have to use it at your own risk. Those who use Windows 8 should NOT use this tool. Windows 8 natively supports ISO files.
2. WinCDEmu Free ISO Mounter
WinCdEmu is an open source CD/DVD/BD emulator. It is a tool that will allow you to mount optical disc images by simply clicking on them in Windows Explorer. If you have an ISO image and you just want to use it without burning it to a blank disc, WinCDEmu is the right tool you for you. It is one of the best ISO mounters for Windows 10.
It provides other features too. It supports an unlimited amount of virtual drives. It allows creating ISO images through a context menu in Explorer. It does not require rebooting after installation, and it supports data, DVD Videos, and BD video images.
3. DAEMON Tools Lite
DAEMON Tools life is said as the best ISO mounter. If all you want to do is to create or mount image file of popular format, then DAEMON tools life is exactly what you are looking for. This is totally free and is for non-commercial use. This software solution will give you the basic functions for operating virtual devices.
4. Virtual clone drive
This tool works and behaves just like a physical CD / DVD drive, but it actually exists virtually. The images that you create with CloneDVD or CloneCD can be mounted on a virtual drive from your hard disk or from a network drive and used in the same manner as inserting them into a normal CD/DVD drive. Since Virtual CloneDrive provides you with the ability to enjoy the freedom of virtual drive and is completely free, it is considered one of the best virtual drive software.
5. gBurner Virtual Drive
Designed for creating and managing virtual CD/DVD drives, the gBurner Virtual Drive is a free utility. People who deal with CD/DVD based program MUST have this installed as it helps them in the long run. Even this is said as one of the best ISO mounters of all times. It allows you to use almost all CD/DVD image without burning them onto other CD or DVD in order to easily get away into your favorite games, music, or software games. It has other features as well some of them are:
- Create multisession discs
- Make bootable data discs
- Able to create the bootable USB drive
- It supports ISO CD-TEXT
- It supports mp3, Wma, Wav, Flac, Ape, and Ogg Audio Formats
6. Free ISO Burner
Free ISO Burner can directly burn your ISO and CD/DVD image file to CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW and Blu-Ray Disc. You won’t need to mount any virtual drives which emulate physical CDs or DVDs; it will write any data directly.
It encapsulates all the complex settings and makes the program very simple and easy to use. Users can select the drivers, set the disk volume, select burn speed and change the burn cache size.
7. ISO workshop
ISO Workshop is a free Windows desktop application exclusively designed to facilitate ISO image management and conversion, as well as CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Disc burning and copying operations. The program allows you to make ISO images, take out files from disc images, create disc backups, convert and burn disc images, etc.
It makes standard or bootable ISO, with the various file system. It burns an image or any other disc image to CD, DVD or Bd. It browses and extracts the file from various disc image formats along with copying any CD, DVD or blu-ray disc to ISO or BIN image.
8. ISODisk
ISODisk is a powerful ISO and a free disc image tool which allows you to create virtual CD/DVD driver up to 20 drives, mount an ISO disk image and access the files on it as if it were burned to CD or DVD. This program can quickly create ISO image file from CD/DVD-ROM. You do not need to install any other virtual drive software. You can just mount an ISO image file to as an internal virtual CD DVD device and quickly create ISO file from CD/DVD-ROM.
9. Pismo File Mount
This windows application allows users to mount the contents of ZIP, ISO, Compact ISO, Compact File Set, and Private Folder Files to the file system as virtual folders. This is free of charge for personal, and business use and hence comes very handily. Some of the main features of this software are:
ZIP reader – You can mount the zip files as read-only folders to allow access to contents, including the ability to execute contained applications.
CD/DVD image file reader DVD and CD images can be mounted in place as a read-only folder to allow access o contents.
10. TotalMounter
TotalMounter is free software that allows the user to mount virtual CD/DVD burner that is allowing to directly burn data onto an ISO file, not to an optical disc. After mounting virtual burner for the first time, the system will recognize it and mechanically install all necessary drivers to run it. After this process finishes, you can easily burn such ISO files in any burning software of your choice.
Final Words
Now, as we have already told you about the top 10 ISO mounting software for Windows, let us know in the comments section about what you think of them and how it helped you. We would love to know if this bit of information helped out in any way!