Suppose you have made a backup of an original optical disc using an ISO image that will be stored on your hard drive. When it comes to mounting that image on a virtual drive, classic applications like Daemon Tools come to mind, but if there is one tool that stands above the rest in ease of use, it is WinCDEmu.
The Growing Need for ISO Images
Thanks to the advancement of USB drives and memory cards, users have had to adapt the content of their CDs and DVDs using ISO images. This process becomes essential for loading software on computers without an optical drive (such as laptops or mini PCs), or for those that for some reason cannot read physical discs (hardware damage, restrictions, etc.). Creating ISO images makes copyright hawks spit bile in the corners, but that does not change the user's right to back up their data and/or convert it to the format they find most convenient. Now, what can we use to read those images? For many years, Daemon Tools has been the preferred software for many users, however, there is a very interesting alternative in WinCDEmu.
Why Choose WinCDEmu?
The first advantage of WinCDEmu is that it is an open source program, so anyone interested can inspect and modify the code. Then we discover that its installer does not exceed two megabytes, and that its portable edition is even more compact (less than 700 kilobytes). Finally, WinCDEmu is extremely easy to use. The traditional edition presents a more complete interface, but the entire procedure is reduced to allowing the installation of a driver (which will generate the virtual drive) and choosing the ISO image we want to read. Once that is done, the ISO image will appear in Windows Explorer as if it were just another optical drive.
WinCDEmu is compatible with all versions of Windows from XP (Windows 2000 needs another build) in 32 and 64 bit versions. There is no limitation of any kind during its use, and it does not occupy a drive letter when it is disabled (something that does happen with other programs). If you have come to the conclusion that you want to replace Daemon Tools, or if you are looking for fast and efficient software, WinCDEmu should be your first choice.
