How to mount an image without any software
March 1st
Daniel Pataki
Desktop Applications
iso, mount, virtual drive
9 comments already, the latest by mario, why not join the discussion?
Have you ever tried mounting an .iso image? You need 3rd party software, you need to most likely reboot since it installs a driver, and you get a huge memory footprint compared to the task at hand. I just found a way to mount an .iso image using a 23K program, with a 9K sys file driver.
The best thing about this is that the files used were created by Microsoft, so there’s no danger of harmful bloatware being installed. The downside is that this file is actually not supported by Microsoft, meaning they are not developing it, and probably won’t accept any support requests for it. However, I am using 32bit Windows 7 and it works perfectly, here’s how.
First of all, download this file from the Microsoft servers. Extract the contents, and place the two files in a folder. On my end I placed them both in a folder in the Program Files folder, as if it were a normal app. Run the exe, click on Driver Control, the Install Driver. Navigate to the sys file, select it and press ok. Once done, press Start, then Ok, to go back to the previous page. Now click “Add Drive”, then select it in the menu on top, and select mount. Find the .iso file you want, and click ok, and that’s it, you should see pop up in My Computer, you can now use it as a drive.
You can close the application once you’ve done this, if you want to unmount, just start the exe again, click unmount, or stop the service in the device manager. That’s it, task done, no memory footprint, not bloatware, nothing, just a mounted disk, wonderful!
While it may seem more technical, I think this is much easier than using Daemon Tools or Power Iso or something like that. The light weight, the ease of use and effectiveness make this a great find, thank you Microsoft!
Daniel! What a wonderful blog! I am an IT guy and the subjects you have in here are very useful! I am glad I found you. Thank you!
Hi from Portugal! I have found your domain on alltheweb. Good content! Eva F. Dobson x
“The best thing about this is that the files used were created by Microsoft, so there’s no danger of harmful bloatware being installed.”
WHAT? You’re kidding, right?
A 23k program and a 9k driver is still software
I agree with stew. The title of this post is completely wrong. An exe, no matter who made it or how big it is, is still “software” being used to mount the iso.
THIS TOOL IS UNSUPPORT BY MICROSOFT PRODUCT SUPPORT SERVICES, found it in README.TXT
Nice Article… …
BRAVO !!!