Top 10 free image mounting software for Windows 10

Are you looking for best free image mounting software to mount ISO, CUE, NRG, MDS/MDF, CCD, IMG images as CD/DVD drives? Here are some options to achieve it on Windows 10…

Most users are acquainted with CD and DVD image files which is a virtual replica of a physical CD or DVD that can come in handy if you want to treat the same as a disc. From booting a virtual machine to keep backup of an operating system and different other programs, we all find CD and DVD image files, typically ISO files handy. Though image files can be opened with the help of compression tools like WinZip, WinRAR or 7zip, it is only limited to viewing the content of the image files and add something new with not much of convenience, however. But none of them can help us mount images of CDs and DVDs, which are necessary for certain operations.

However, there are a number of tools, which can help you use a CD and DVD image file as a physical CD or DVD on a computer. Some of them are quite common, and you might already have them installed on your computer, there are a few other programs, which can be equally useful for you. If you are using Windows 10, Microsoft has its own image drive, which can be useful to mount CD and DVD images, but that isn’t a full-fledged solution, as it is only limited to mounting image files on a hard drive or any other volume formatted in NTFS file system. That’s when you need a dedicated tool to mount CD and DVD images to get wider choices, and more convenient features from the image mounting tool.

So, here I am with that top 10 free CD and DVD image mounting program that you can use on your Windows computer. Now, let’s get started with the list.

Best image mounting software for Windows 10/8/7

The software given here for mounting images like ISO, Bin and more are compatible with Windows 10, Windows 8 and WIndow 7. Few of them work on Vista and XP too. Have a look to the list…

DAEMON Tools Lite

The first one on my list is obviously DAEMON Tools Lite, a free image mounting software. From the name itself, it is evident to you that there is also a paid version of the program, which comes with additional functionalities that can be useful for a certain class of users. However, if you just want to mount image files, the free version of DAEMON Tools Lite can work perfectly for you. Even though it tries to install at the time of installation there are are a lot of reasons you should consider DAEMON Tools Lite as a full-fledged solution to Mount image files.

No, the power of DAEMON Tools Lite doesn’t end here. You can even mount other Virtual images like VHD, VMDK using DAEMON Tools Lite. You can know more about this here. For the advanced class of users, there are also a lot of functionalities, which you can find in DAEMON Tools Lite.

DAEMON Tools Lite free ISO burner

Everything is packed in a very easy and user-friendly interface, which will never perplex you even if you are using it for the very first time. DAEMON Tools Lite is a powerful program, and you can comprehend the power of it, once you get your hands laid down on it.

WinCDEmu

WinCDEmu is the simplest free tool to Mount CD and DVD or ISO images on a computer running Windows. It offers one-click mounting of ISO, CUE, NRG, MDS/MDF, CCD, IMG images.

Unlike other programs, WinCDEmu doesn’t come with an everlasting set of features. WinCDEmu is all about mounting to virtual CD and DVD images onto a virtual CD and DVD ROM drives that can be created using the software. There isn’t any limit on the number of virtual CD and DVD ROM drives that you can create, which means, you can have as many virtual drives as you want, theoretically, and mount multiple CD and DVD images as you can at a time.

WinCDEmu has support for a number of popular CD and DVD image formats besides ISO, like NRG, BIN, CUE, IMG, and the list goes on. It isn’t it all a big deal to set up WinCDEmu, and you can get started with the functions of the program right after installation.

WinCDEmu free image mounting software

The user interface of the software is also quite easy, and you can even images directly from the Windows Explorer by choosing the appropriate option from the right-click context menu. WinCDEmu is completely free to use with no hidden charges at all, and you can install the program without the fear of other unwanted guests for your operating system.

Virtual CloneDrive

The next that made it to the list is Virtual CloneDrive, which is yet another simple image mounting software to mount CD and DVD images. The user interface is simple, and there are not many options to change or configure before you can start using the program. If you are looking for a lightweight CD or DVD image mounting tool with not so many features, Virtual CloneDrive is the best mate for you.

Though you can’t create an unlimited number of virtual image drives, 8 virtual image drives can be enough for most people out there. Besides that, Virtual CloneDrive keeps a history of the last images mounted using the program, and you can mount them again with a single click, which is yet another thing most people find in handy. Supports all common image formats such as ISO, BIN, IMG, UDF, DVD, and CCD

Virtual-CloneDrive-image-mounting-software

There are a few neat features that you can consider changing to get the best out of the program, like, unmount image on eject, automount the last image, buffered I/O, etc.

ISODisk

Another full-fledged CD and DVD program is ISODisk, which not only gives you access to the files on a virtual image, but the program can also burn optical disk images to a CD or DVD. With ISODisk, you can create a maximum of 20 virtual drives, which is enough for most people dealing with CDs and DVDs. ISODisk offers a very simple and minimalistic user interface, where you have to choose between whether you want to burn image files, or mount one.

The program consumes around 10 MB of space on your hard drive, and the simple lightweight program can even help you mount images placed on a remote computer if both computers are on the same network, or on a mapped drive, as well.

ISODisk-mounting

ISODisk runs without any problems on almost all major versions of Windows, and it is one of the most responsive programs that you can use to mount CD and DVD images.

gBurner Virtual Drive

If you are looking for advanced software for mounting CD and DVD images, gBurner Virtual Drive is the one you can go for. It supports a wides range of image file formats such as ISO (Standard ISO File), GBI / GBP, NRG (Nero Image Files), MDF / MDS; BIN / CUE, UIF, ISZ, ASHDISC, DMG (Apple Mac Image Files), GI (RecordNow Image Files), BWI / B5I, IMG, CDI; PDI. NCD, LCD, CIF, P01, PXI, C2D, FCD and VCD.

The ability to mount CD and DVD images is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gBurner Virtual Drive. Besides mounting CD and DVD images, with gBurner Virtual Drive, you can even create image files, or modify the content of a virtual image in different ways. gBurner Virtual Drive is optimized for accessing music, videos, and games from a virtual drive, and you can make that out once you start using the program.

gBurner Virtual Drive offers a very friendly user interface, with nicely designed menus, and it is a powerful software at the same time. gBurner Virtual Drive supports a plethora of different file formats, and you can even create bootable drives using gBurner Virtual Drive, which can be useful for creating operating system images. The integration of gBurner Virtual Drive with Windows Explorer makes it easy to mount images or create one directly from the right-click context menu. So there are numerous bells and whistles that you should try gBurner Virtual Drive out and see, whether it fulfils your needs.

gBurner Virtual Drive

Note: It is a trial version software.

Pismo File Mount 

Mount ZIP, ISO, CISO, CFS, and PFO files as virtual folders in the Windows file system.

Not everyone needs a great user interface to get their job done. If you are one of those fellows, Pismo File Mount is the one you should surely give a try. Unlike most other programs I have mentioned here, Pismo File Mount doesn’t have a user interface like other mounting apps, however, you can get access to all the features by simply right click on the ISO images you want to mount. It is available for Windows, Linux and macOS.

Pismo-free-mounting-software-for-Windows-10

Pismo File Mount isn’t a fancy tool, however, there is no doubt about how powerful the program is.

ISO Workshop

The name is self-explanatory here. ISO Workshop can be your one-stop tool for all your CD and DVD burning and mounting requirements, with some bonuses. ISO Workshop also offers you a platform to convert images from one format to another directly, and everything comes packed in a sweet and colourful, yet simple user interface, which nobody should have complaints about. With ISO Workshop, you can even create a bootable CD and DVD drive.

There are a number of useful settings that you can change to make ISO Workshop work the way that you exactly want. Changing the file system for burning CDs and DVDs is also a piece of the pie. Not to mention, ISO Workshop is very easy to use, and it also supports BD images, rewritable discs, which adds up to make this a full-fledged tool for managing CDs and DVDs. ISO Workshop is compatible with almost all the versions of Windows, and thus, give I will recommend you to give it a shot.

ISO-Workshop-image-burning-and-mounting-software

Alcohol Portable

Most geeks already know about Alcohol. No, I am not talking about the chemical but the CD and DVD suite software that is to create and mount CD and DVD images on a computer. Recently, the company released Alcohol Portable, which is a freeware, and you can use it for the purpose of mounting CD and DVD images onto a computer. The features of Alcohol Portable are quite limited and you cannot find any other features in the program. However, the straight-forwardness makes it very easy to use program with a very simple user interface. Just add the image that you want to mount from your local storage and mount it from the right-click context menu within the program.

Alcohol-Portable

As the name suggests, it is a portable program, and you can copy it on your flash drive to use it anywhere. Alcohol Portable is completely free from any malware and you can easily eject or unmount an image from the Windows Explorer, or from within the Alcohol Portable user interface. Once you are done with the program, you can easily remove the traces of Alcohol Portable from your system, which can be useful in certain conditions. Lastly, you can even change the drive letter of the mounted images with just a few clicks directly from within the program.

DVDFab Virtual Drive

Just like Magic Disc, DVDFab Virtual Drive is yet another virtual image mounting program for Windows, where you cannot do a lot of things on the user interface of the program. Most features of the program are accessible from the context menu of the program’s system icon. However, you can open the user interface to change some settings associated with the program and you can create up to 18 virtual drives with the software. Once an image is mounted using the program, you can always mount the same again come as the record of the last few images is maintained within the program.

Besides the most common features, you can create a .miniso image to mount a folder as a virtual drive and treat it like a CD or DVD on certain programs. This feature can really be useful if you don’t want to mount CD and DVD images without going through the process of creating a new full-fledged CD or DVD image. DVDFab Virtual Drive also has support for hotkeys to make it an easy-to-use the program and you can change or configure the hotkeys from the settings of DVDFab Virtual Drive. Considering all the things, DVDFab Virtual Drive is worth giving a try. 

DVDFab-Virtual-Drive-free-mounting-software

ImDisk Toolkit

Another free CD and DVD image mounting software which offers a decent set of functionalities and features is ImDisk Toolkit. Just like a few other popular image mountings software, ImDisk Toolkit also offers an easy-to-use option to mount different image formats besides the most common ones. If you are using an old or new computer on both, ImDisk Toolkit can come in handy, as it is quite lightweight even after offering a handful of features, along with some cool ways to customize the look and feel of the program as per your needs.

Though the program is very easy to use, I should also mention, the program is quite good in terms of helping you with all the possible tools so that you never face any kind of problems in day to day usage and for doing some complex tasks using the program. ImDisk Toolkit features an old school user interface which might not be cool enough but is still useful for are huge class of users, who don’t love those fancy user interfaces.

ImDisk-Toolkit-lightweight-mounting-tool

Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel

Official image mounting tool launched by Microsoft to enable users of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 to mount ISO disk image files as virtual CD-ROM drives.

Virtual-CDROM-mounting-software

Download

See: How to mount ISO images on Windows 10 without any software.

What is image mounting?

Soft copy of DVD or CD or any folder either bootable or non-bootable when compressed into different image file formats such as ISO or BIN are called images. To use these images without burning them to DVD/CD we use virtual drive just like our physical DVD drive and inserting of these file images to Virtual Drive like any physical optical disk to read or copy data is called Image mounting.

How do I mount a disk image?

Either use any third-party image mounting software some of them listed here or use Windows 7/8/10 default Virtual Drives. Just right click on ISO or other file image and click on Mount option. It will automatically insert the image file into a virtual drive which can be accessed from my computer.

What is the best ISO mounting software?

There are couple of best ISO mounting free software such as DAEMON Tools Lite, WinCDEmu and Virtual CloneDrive.

How do I extract a disc image in Windows 10?

Install any of the disc image mounting software given below and extract it easily. OR Just use the default option right click on the image file and mount it. After that from MyComputer open the virtual drive of it and copy all files to your system drive.

There is no doubt, ISO or disc image files will not go extinct any time soon, as it is one of the best modes to save files and access them without facing any troubles. Besides the best 8 image mounting tools, I have mentioned here, there are even some image mounting tools that come with a price tag, and offer some extra sets of features useful to some. But if your requirement is limited to image mounting, and creating CDs and DVDs, I am sure, the programs I have mentioned here will disappoint you in any way. Power ISO, Alcohol 120% are some paid alternatives you should consider trying out, and they undoubtedly offer some premium features to justify their price.

So that was my list of top free CD and DVD image mounting tools that you can go for. Do you have any questions? Feel free to comment on the same below.