The most common of these devices are virtual drives, such as a virtual CD or DVD.

Mounting an image essentially means reading a file, but the difference is that the virtual CD-ROM, for instance, is reading that file as physical CD-ROM would read a physical CD, and Windows interacts with that virtual CD-ROM just as it would a physical version.

This can be particularly convenient when you have a disc image that youll only use once or twice, so you avoid wasting a disc.

Likewise, if you have a disc you use frequently, mounting an image you store locally can be more convenient as well as perhaps avoid wear and tear on the original disc, which you can keep somewhere safe.

Drives are registered with Windows and assigned a drive letter, and theyll automatically be available at startup unless you force DAEMON Tools not to load with Windows.

Images mount very fast, so theres no problem swapping back and forth, but if you have to do that often, then youre better offer creating another virtual drive.

The program supports a wide range of disc image formats, including BWT, CCD, CDI, ISO, MDS and NRG.

Although this feature can be used to access software illegally, it also has some very practical purposes.

The program will simply copy it into the image, and then it can emulate the protection mechanism in order to let that disc image operate as normal.

If theres a downside to the application its that the UI is a bit outdated, but outside of creating a virtual device and some maintenance tasks, youre generally be interfacing with DAEMON Tools through the Windows interface, so that isnt much of a problem.

Yasu.Exe Daemon Tools Lite