Mounting ISO files..

I have been using VMWare for a while and love the feature to mount an ISO file as a drive letter in the virtual environment.  It extremely convenient and it is much faster than using CDs or DVDs to do installs.   Recently I found the need to use an ISO file.  Sure I could burn the file to a CD or DVD and use it, but I wanted to realize the speed and convience that I was used to in my Virtual environments.

I have used the demo of Alcohol in the past and liked it but didn’t really want to pay anything to use it.  Yeah, I can be cheap sometimes.   So I did some searching and stumbled upon a free tool from Microsoft that will allow me to do this.  The Windows XP Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel.  This tool fit all my needs..  It was a small download, free, and it worked.

The directions from the readme:

Readme for Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel v2.0.1.1

THIS TOOL IS UNSUPPORT BY MICROSOFT PRODUCT SUPPORT SERVICES

System Requirements
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- Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional

Installation instructions
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1. Copy VCdRom.sys to your %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder.
2. Execute VCdControlTool.exe
3. Click “Driver control”
4. If the “Install Driver” button is available, click it. Navigate to the %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder, select VCdRom.sys, and click Open.
5. Click “Start”
6. Click OK
7. Click “Add Drive” to add a drive to the drive list. Ensure that the drive added is not a local drive. If it is, continue to click “Add Drive” until an unused drive letter is available.
8. Select an unused drive letter from the drive list and click “Mount”.
9. Navigate to the image file, select it, and click “OK”. UNC naming conventions should not be used, however mapped network drives should be OK.

You may now use the drive letter as if it were a local CD-ROM device. When you are finished you may unmount, stop, and remove the driver from memory using the driver control.

Download the XP Virtual CD Control Panel from Microsoft today.