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I'm looking for an alternative of Disk Image Mount application of Windows 8:

  • runs on previous Windows versions (Vista is the edition I'm interested in)
  • the virtual drive should only appear when an image is mounted
  • the right-click Eject function should work (no tray icons to unmount)
  • no tray icons
  • no virtual drive in Windows Explorer when no image is mounted
  • I don't want to see any interface when opening an image with it. I just want to see the image mounted.
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1
  • I don't have it installed at the moment, but PowerISO does all this IIRC. The free version does have a "please register" type dialog.
    – Matthew Read
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 2:59

7 Answers 7

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Elby Virtual CloneDrive (Formally recommended SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive)

  • gratis
  • runs on Windows 2000/XP/XP64/VISTA/VISTA64/Win7/Win7-64/Win8/Win8-64/Win10
    • Note: I can confirm runs on Windows Server editions of 2003 and higher as well
  • Virtual drive always appears in explorer windows (8 may use hide when empty)
  • Supports right-click Eject
  • System Tray icon can be hidden
  • Embeds into Explorer Right Click Menu. Right click a supported file type and click mount

Update March 2016: I have added the link to Elby as SlySoft have closed doors due to a different product.

From the site

Virtual CloneDrive works and behaves just like a physical CD/DVD drive, however, it exists only virtually. Image files generated with CloneDVD or CloneCD can be mounted onto 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.

Features

  • Supports all common image formats such as ISO, BIN, CCD
  • Supports up to 8 virtual drives at the same time
  • Easy to use - just double-click an image file to mount as a drive
  • Virtual CloneDrive is freeware, you may use it at no cost.
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  • Although it always shows virtual drive it works perfectly.
    – Cornelius
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 7:47
  • @Nick - Hopefully edit brings answer closer to the spirit of this site
    – Wayne
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 10:14
  • I don't understand the popularity of Virtual Clone Drive over Daemon Tools Lite. Daemon Tools Lite is gree/gratis and supports mounting BIN/CUE CD images with multiple tracks; Virtual Clone Drive doesn't, so it is a bit worse.
    – Jez
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 15:15
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    @Jez - Daemon tools got a tarnished reputation when they included things in the installer. That's why nearly overnight the community switched. I believe this is still evident today
    – Wayne
    Commented Jun 25, 2014 at 3:38
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You can use Microsoft's own Virtual CD-ROM application.

  • free
  • runs on Vista
  • eject works
  • no tray icons when not running
  • no virtual drive on Win Explorer when no image mounted

It is an alternative to Disk Image Mount.

The Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel utility enables users of Windows XP, Vista, and 7 to mount ISO disk image files as virtual CD-ROM drives. This can be highly useful for reading disk images to install software or recover backup files. Notes: This tool is not supported by Microsoft; use at your own risk. Windows 8 users do NOT need this tool. Windows 8 natively supports ISO files. In Windows 8, you can simply open an ISO file and Windows automatically assigns it a drive letter and reads it as a virtual drive.

Vitual CDRom Control Panel UI

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  • 8
    This utility is very old (2001) and does not work on 64-bit systems.
    – Sergey Vlasov
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 9:15
  • 1
    @shub The download you link to was published in 2013, but the actual software was indeed created in 2001, according to its Wikipedia page.
    – ajp15243
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 17:43
  • @ajp15243 OK, thanks! I don't see the problem if the software itself is old... as long as the program works with the latest OSes - it works fine for me (Win7 32bit)!
    – ᔕᖺᘎᕊ
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 17:50
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    @shub If it works for OP, then certainly. However, given the computer world's migration to 64-bit, and the fact that this software doesn't support 64-bit OSes, it is an important thing to note.
    – ajp15243
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 18:10
  • FYI: the error message is This driver has been blocked from loading. One of the reasons probably is that the driver is not digitally signed.
    – Thomas Weller
    Commented Jun 25, 2014 at 8:28
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WinCDEmu is a small utility that allows mounting disc images:

  • freeware
  • no interface; just open file with it and you see it mounted
  • supports ISO, CUE, NRG, MDS/MDF, CCD, IMG
  • does not show virtual drive when no image mounted
  • no tray icon
  • Eject is working

WinCREmu UI

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  • It would have been exactly what I want but it stops working when mounting images.
    – Cornelius
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 7:52
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    I use WinCDEmu on a Win 7 machine and have never had a problem.
    – David
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 13:48
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    It's also available as a portable version from Portableapps.com
    – JKEngineer
    Commented Apr 21, 2016 at 21:17
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DAEMON Tools Lite 4 does:

  • runs on Windows Vista
  • the right-click Eject function should work (no tray icons to unmount)
  • no tray icon:

Deemon Tools Lite 4 Preferences Window

  • convenient to manage many ISO files:

Deamon Tools Lite UI

does not:

  • the virtual drive should only appear when an image is mounted

Note: make sure that you skip the crapware when installing.

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  • 3
    Man, you are using some vintage version :)
    – Mr. Alien
    Commented Jun 23, 2014 at 18:22
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    Only one year old (4.48.1.0347) actually, but with Windows classic theme!
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jun 23, 2014 at 18:25
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    I love windows classical theme.
    – Koray Tugay
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 5:47
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    be carefull, DEAMON Tools used to be bundled with some bad stuff for a while. Don't know the current state though...
    – RoelF
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 8:27
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    Still the same, just need to skip the crapware when installing.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jun 24, 2014 at 14:29
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ImDisk (open source)

ImDisk is a more versatile application that allows you to mount basically anything as long as you have memory (for creating RAM disks) or an image file. The GUI front-end is not very good, but that's because it's just a driver. It also includes a command-line tool, a Control Panel applet, and a shell extension (right-click to mount images).

If you don't like ImDisk's ugly look, you can try an alternative package called ImDisk Toolkit, which is much more user-friendly.

ImDisk UI

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  • This worked great when I tried it (after I had no success trying to burn a 7.4 GB ISO file on double capacity DVD media (8 GB)). It is also very fast to get working: download the 350 KB installer, run it, right click on the ISO image file in question, select "Mount as ImDisk Virtual Disk", press "OK" and you are set (a computer restart is not necessary).
    – Peter Mortensen
    Commented Mar 15, 2016 at 21:59
2

My personal favorite for mounting ISO images is MagicDisk/MagicISO

I'm using it on Windows XP (now Win7) for serveral years

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2

Gizmo Drive is my favorite choice before Windows 8.

It's a set of tools with additional add-ons if needed. One of the functions is virtual drive and it'll add as many drives as you mount. It can support not only ISO but lots of other formats including virtual hard drives.

  • Mount ISO, BIN, CUE, NRG files to a virtual CD-ROM drive
  • Mount VHD files, used with Microsoft Virtual PC
  • Mount password protected images to a virtual hard drive
  • Encrypt HD images using a passphrase
  • Protect vital files from hackers using encrypted HD images
  • Mount IMG files to a virtual drive
  • Mount and unmount files from the Windows Shell
  • Mount and unmount files from the command line
  • Support for compression and sparse HD images

The program is freeware and the supported platforms are:

  • Windows 7 (32-bit/64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2008 (32-bit/64-bit)
  • Windows Vista (32-bit/64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2003 (32-bit/64-bit)
  • Windows XP (32-bit/64-bit)
  • Windows 2000

gizmo gizmo2

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