WinCDEmu is an Open Source software program that can mount iso images but also cue, bin, raw, img and smb network shares. It is probably the easiest to use of all the different virtual CD applications. All that the user needs to be doing after installation is to double-click a supported disk image to mount it. The mounted disk image will be available seconds later as a virtual CD drive.

WinCDEmu will however not make itself the default application for those disk image file extensions which means that the double-click will not work if the file formats are already assigned to another application on the computer. It is possible to change the behavior of the file extension so that WinCDEmu becomes the default application.

Another possibility would be to right-click the disk image and select Open With > vmnt. This will mount the disk image as well and assign a free drive letter to it.

To unmount a disk image you simply need to right-click the virtual CD drive in Windows Explorer and select Eject from the context menu. WinCDEmu is a straightforward software program to mount iso images and other disk formats. Both Windows XP and Windows Vista are supported by the software program.

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ISODisk is another software that can create virtual CD drives. It is limited to the ISO format but can mount up to 20 images on virtual CD drives which might be interesting for users who need more than the usual 4-8 virtual drives that the other applications provide.

The interface if ISODisk is one of the cleanest in the field. All of the software’s functions can be configured in two tabs. The first tab displays the 20 possible virtual drives including their drive letters. The same window provides access to a file browser that can be used to locate an ISO image on the computer’s hard drive or local area network and mount it to one of the available drive letters.

The fact that the drive letters are displayed makes it very easy to select specific drive letters for the ISO images and provides a great overview of the currently mounted images.

The second tab contains an application to create an ISO image from a CD or DVD. A test with the original Fallout 3 DVD and the Fallout 3 Bonus CD lead to an error message. Could be a very nice and handy feature if it would be working. If you try it let me know if it works on your computer or if it throws an error message.

The biggest advantage if ISODisk is that it can mount up to 20 images in an easy to manage program interface. Support for additional image formats and a better explanation of the ISO creation are much needed features though.

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Virtual CloneDrive is a software that emulates up to eight virtual CD and DVD drives on the system. Each appears in Windows Explorer with its own drive letter and the user can perform the usual operations such as installing software from or exploring the CD or DVD that has been mounted.

The software works by adding two new entries to the right-click context menu in Windows Explorer that only appear when right-clicking a virtual CD drive. That makes mounting and unmounting new images overly complicated. I liked how Daemon Tools provided a system tray icon that could be used to mount and unmount images easily.

Several popular image formats are supported including iso, dvd and img but it does not support all the image formats that were supported by Daemon Tools Lite.

The software has a low computer memory consumption while it is running. It used up only 3 Megabytes of computer memory while emulating one virtual drive. Raising that number did not have a huge impact on the memory consumption.

The application had to be started again to add or remove virtual CD drives from the system. Mounting and working with those CD and DVD images on the other hand was uncomplicated. The application lacks an interface that is accessible while using it. It would also be nice to be able to mount images by right-clicking them or loading them from the program’s interface. Currently the only other option available is to assign the file extensions to Virtual CloneDrive so that a double-click would mount them.

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