While previous versions of Windows needed third-party software for this task, Windows 10 comes with the versatile File Explorer, which enables you to mount a disc image with just a few clicks or taps. First, open File Explorer and navigate to the “.iso” file that you want to open. We used the ISO.
ISO file, also called ISO image, is an archive file that holds the data of an entire CD or DVD, which must be extracted with the help of an ISO mounting software. The entire content of a disk can be very easily stored in the form of an ISO file. In order to use the data, you will need to build the ISO file and access it into your system. The file is of no good unless the content inside is extracted and build upon using the right product.
Microsoft Windows allows users to carry out different tasks very easily without having to worry about getting engaged in extensive methods. In Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 computers, the ISO mounting feature is built in the system. However, just like many of the in-built apps, it is not really competitive among top ISO mounting software listed in this article.
- How to open (mount) ISO files with File Explorer in Windows 10. ISO is the most popular file format for disc images. When you open a disc image, you see its contents, as if it were the disc that it is cloning. You can use the disc image the same way you would use the original disc.
- Unlike in previous versions of Windows, you’ll need to use the media creation tool to create an ISO file to install Windows 10. Make sure you have a license to install Windows 10, and then follow these steps: On the Windows 10 download page, download the media creation tool.
- Download this app from Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows 10 Team (Surface Hub), HoloLens. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for MDF to ISO.
When Are ISO Files Used?
Since ISO files can store a large amount of data within them, it becomes relatively easier for the people to transfer big files over the internet. All of the data that you want can neatly be arranged and compressed into an ISO file. The ISO is only a single ISO image file which makes it very much easier to download and burn it to a disc or other device so that the content can be used conveniently. You can open the ISO file in different ways by using a different application depending on the content that is inside it.
Included with so many important files, the ISO files should be kept safely with backups. In case the worst situation appears and all the files are lost, you should rescue the ISO files with file recovery software as soon as possible.
Top 13 Best Software that Can Be Used to Mount ISO Files
The following applications come with different features and allow you to carry out different functions easily in Windows 7. Even when you are using a Windows 8 or 10 computer, they will offer some advanced functions, or serve as an alternative when the system feature fails to work.
1. Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel
Microsoft Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel was released in 2013 which was made available for Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows Vista so that users can mount the ISO disk image and use them as a virtual CD drive. The application can be really useful for burning disk, reading and also recover the backup files as well.
Since Windows 8 and higher versions support ISO files natively, this ISO mounting software needs to be used only in Windows 7 and earlier OSs. It does not have too many advanced features to offer to the users, but it does provide reliable service of mounting the ISO files as virtual CD or DVD.
2. DAEMON Tools Lite
DAEMON Tools is one of the most popular software that people use to mount their ISO files. For many years this tool has been used to mount and restore millions of .iso files by thousands of customers.
This ISO mounting software is free for home and non-commercial users, but it also provides advanced features, which can be purchased separately. Interestingly, Daemon tools supports Windows 7/8/8.1/10.
3. Power ISO
When it comes to ISO mounting, Power ISO is the first choice for many users. The versatile nature and brilliant features of the application clearly make it one of the best ISO mounters. With the assist of Power ISO, you can mount and burn files of almost every format – BIN, ISO, NRG, CDI, and DAA.
A very useful feature of this file when your system is running on Windows 7 is the aptitude to create USB bootable flash drives. The versatility of the application is revealed when it comes to knowing that apart from mounting ISO files it can also very easily rip MP3, APE, WMA, BIN, or FLAC files.
4. WinCDEmu
WinCDEmu is an open-source ISO mounting software that can be integrated into the Windows Explorer once installed, so you will be able to utilize this app from right-click menu. It has simple functionality, and you can mount ISO files with a simple click.
Not only ISO files but also CUE, CCD, NRG, MDS/MDF, and the IMG images are supported by this well-off application. While using this application, you’d also get the ability to create as many virtual drives as you want. Even though it does not provide as many features like Power ISO or Daemon Tools, it is the best solution when you have basic needs on your computer.
5. Virtual CloneDrive
Virtual CloneDrive has made it to our list of top 13 best software to create virtual drives and mount ISO images. This software comes for free for almost all Windows operating systems, and you can download it from the official website.
You can easily mount ISO files and put them on the virtual drives. The only drawback of this application is that you cannot create unlimited virtual drives but only eight. However, if 8 virtual drives will do your task, then it can be one of the best mounting applications for Windows which is easy to use and is not going to cost you any money.
6. ISODisk
ISODisk is a freeware which you can use to create virtual CD/DVD drive up to 20 drivers. You need to mount an ISO disk image which you want to burn. The software will automatically access the files available on the ISO disk and burn it to CD or DVD. It works in the opposite direction as well. You can create an ISO image file from a CD or DVD ROM.
Features of ISODisk:
- There is no requirement of any virtual drive software to use ISODisk.
- It enables the user to mount ISO image files to CD or DVD.
- It enables the user to create ISO files from CD or DVD-ROM.
- It allows the user to mount an ISO image for on LAN.
7. gBurner Virtual Drive
gBurner Virtual Drive is a powerful tool which you can create to manage and customize the CD or DVD drives. It offers a free utility to create CD/DVD by burning the ISO image completely. It is designed with advanced CD/DVD based programs and is technically advanced to access the games, music and software using the virtual drive. So, you can easily create a virtual drive space using gBurner Virtual Drive and use it as a real CD/DVD-ROM. It provides the user with a platform where they can run any program or play games or compute other tasks using the virtual created CD or DVD drive.
Features of gBurner Virtual Drive:
- Easily create virtual data, audio and video discs in various types, including CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, BD-R, BD-RE, etc.
- It is helpful in the creation of multisession discs and bootable USB drives.
- It gives great support to ISO 9660, Joliet and UDF file systems.
- You can easily copy CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs using it.
- Audio CD-TEXT, MP3, wma, wav, flac, ape and ogg formats are supported.
- It enables the user to easily open, create, modify, extract, compress, convert and burn the disc image file to CD/DVD-ROM.
- This tool works automatically to analyze all the disc image files.
- You can mount wim, vmdk, vhd, and vdi virtual disk image files.
8. Free ISO Burner
Free ISO Burner is a free service to burn the image file and convert it to a CD/DVD-ROM. It supports a wide range of image files and CD/DVD-ROM drives. You can create CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, HD DVD and Blu ray Disc. This tool is capable to write all the data directly to created drives. There is no requirement to mention of virtual drives for the emulation of physical drives.
Features of Free ISO Burner:
- It takes a few simple steps to complete the process.
- It allows the user to select the drivers, customize the disk volume, burn speed, burn cache size and abort the burning process.
- It gives great support to a bootable CD image file.
- You can select the final disc which you want to play using the virtual drive.
9. ISO Workshop
Here comes another application which you can get on your PC for the management of the ISO image and CD/DVD-ROM. It is a well-designed program with complex codes and allows the user to work with the mounting and creating process in an innovative way. You can easily use this site for the conversation of ISO images, extraction of the disc images to convert and burn it to make CD/DVD/Blu-ray disc.
Features of ISO Workshop:
- It is capable to burn an image or any other disc image and convert it to CD/DVD/Blu-ray disc.
- It allows the user to create a standard or bootable ISO which is compatible with any file system.
- Extraction of disc images is also done using the application.
- It enables the user to copy and convert CD/DVD/BD to ISO image.
- It is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 (32-bit and 64-bit)
10. OSFMount
OSFMount is used for only mounting of images and disk files. You will not be able to create a disc space using this tool. Get this application downloaded on your device and mount all the local disk image files with a drive letter.
Features of OSFMount:
- It takes the use of mounted volume’s drive letter for the analyzation and read of the disk image file.
- It won’t let the mounting process alter the original image files.
- It takes the image files for the read-only process.
11. Pismo File Mount
Here comes another application which is available with mount only option. You can easily mount ZIP, ISO, Compact ISO, Compact File Set and Private Folder files and convert them to the various file system as virtual drives. You can customize its services as per your choice an select the usage i.e., personal and professional.
Features of Pismo File Mount:
- It enables the user to mount the zip files in the read-only format. The application accesses its content and converts it into the disk space.
- It supports ISO and CISO image formats.
- It had an imbuing CD/DVD image file reader and compact file set, reader.
12. TotalMount
TotalMount gives the complete solution to mount CD/DVD and create a virtual drive. It burns the ISO image file without accessing the optical disk. It analyses the system and automatically selects the drive to be burn.
Features of TotalMount:
- It is featured with CD-RW, DVD+RW and CD/DVD-ROM emulator.
- It us capable to mount the iStorage Server and another iSCSI target with the help of iSCSI initiator.
- It allows the user to mount and create an image file and VHD files.
- It renders 8 virtual drives and a simple management tool to set up the virtual drives.
- It is compatible with x86 and x64 machines.
- It does not out any restriction on disk capacity, RAM or installation of the hard disk.
13. ImDisk Toolkit
It is a simple tool which is used for mounting image files belonging to hard-drive, CD-ROM or Floppy. You can also create one or more RAM disk depending upon the various factors.
Features of ImDisk Toolkit:
- It is powered with various tools like ImDisk Virtual Disk Driver and DiscUtils library.
- You can easily customize the number of image files and use other features for mounting.
- It has a simple and interactive interface.
Final Verdict
So, now you are aware of these top 13 applications that can be used to mount ISO files and create virtual drives. All of these applications are already being used by millions of people worldwide, and each of them has their own set of features.
With the help of these applications, it is just a piece of cake to mount ISO as well as other image files, like CUE, CCD, MDS/MDF, NRG, and IMG. Therefore, you will need to choose the one which suits your needs the best.
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ISO image files are basically used for making Windows operating system disks as well as extracting gaming files, applications, software and other information from a single source. Usually, people compress all the required data in one single file so that it can be burned in a CD/DVD or USB flash drive to run the installer directly from the portable device.
Now you must be wondering that you can simply copy paste the ISO image file from your computer to flash drive or DVD like you do with multimedia files and it will run perfectly. But that's not the truth at all. In fact, you will be required to properly burn the ISO image file to your portable device to extract the data and run the installer correctly or else any data contained inside the ISO image file will simply won’t work. So, in this guide we will show you couple ways to run ISO image files on Windows operating systems.
Also read: How to make bootable USB flash drive from ISO
Method #1: Run and Open ISO Files on Windows 10/8/7
ISO to USB is a free and open source tool available on the official website that helps to burn ISO image files into pen drives and CD/DVDs. It is extremely liter in size and can get the job done easily. It is a plug and play tool that doesn’t required to be installed at all. Here’s a step by step tutorial to show how to use this tool to burn ISO image files and run them properly on Windows computers.
Step 1. Go to the ISO to USB tool page and download the executable file on your PC.
Step 2. Like we mentioned, you don’t have to install it, just double click on the downloaded file and it will run automatically.
Step 3. Plug in a flash drive or CD/DVD in your PC and wait for the tool to detect it automatically.
Step 4. Click on 'Browse' from the ISO file section and select the ISO image file from the local drive of your computer.
Step 5. Leave all the default settings as it is if you have no knowledge about them and simply click on 'Burn' and let the program do the rest.
Step 6. Once the ISO file is successfully burnt into your portable device, you can open the flash drive to see the extracted files.
Cons:
- Extremely slow. Takes longer than usual.
- Program can hang half way into burning.
- Doesn’t work with Windows 64-bit systems.
- Fatal errors and warnings are common.
Method #2: Open ISO File on Windows 10 using WizISO
If you are looking for a reliable and more user-friendly way to open and view content in ISO image file then you must use an ISO Editor tool. WizISO is the most recommended ISO editing tool that can extract everything from your ISO file and burn any size of ISO image files into your thumb drive or CD/DVD without getting any fatal errors or warnings. This program is specially designed for editing, burning , extracting , creating ISO file on Windows operating system ISO image file.
Iso Opener Win 10
WizISO - Burn ISO File to USB/DVD with 5 Minutes
- One-stop solution to burn ISO file to USB/DVD without losing any data. No special technical skills are required.
- It works for both GPT (UEFI boot) and MBR (legacy BIOS/CMS boot) modes.
- Fully supports all types of system files- FAT. FAT 32, and NTFS.
- Allow you to edit ISO, extract, create, burn and copy disc.
- Supports all kinds of Windows operating system- XP/ Vista/ 7/ 8/ 10.
Step 1. Firstly, install the program on your Windows computer in 2 minutes and open it to see the attractive UI.
Step 2. Select the 'Burn' option open the ISO burnning interface. Click on 'Browse' and the program will detect ISO image files automatically from your PC. and Insert the CD/DVD or USB flash drive to PC and the program will recognize the device automatically.
Step 3. Choose the partition style and format then click on 'Burn'. Wait for few moments and voila! The ISO image file is successfully burnt. You can simply run the program and it will work perfectly now.
There are many ways to burn and run ISO image files on Windows 10/87 but we have listed the 2 most favorite ways to accomplish the task effortlessly. WizBurn is a classic and innovative tool that most Windows users loves due to its efficiency and simplicity. You can go ahead and download the tool today as it is free to try.