When you're playing games with us you will definitely run into a file type called ISO. An ISO is an archive of an optical disc that contains ripped games, or other media such as DVD movies. ISOs are basically backups of entire game discs that have a variety of uses. ISOs are also already on the drive so you don't have to deal with the limiting speeds of going from physical media to the hard drive, you will notice much faster install times and smoother playback from media discs, they also cannot be scratched which gives them a much better advantage over physical media such as DVDs and CDs. There are other types of virtual images that can be run into such as BIN/CUE combos, UIF, MDS/MDF, and DAA; almost all of these are supported by the list of software I will provide later in this tutorial.

There are a couple of way to use ISO images to install games or watch movies that come on ISO images. The easiest to do is to just burn them to a blank CD or DVD, however this requires blank CDs/DVDs and a burner. However this also allows you to take the file anywhere you want to go. Basically to do this all you need is an ISO burning tool like ImgBurn or Nero. Select the ISO you want to burn, and burn it! Voila, done. Then after it's burnt just re-insert the newly burnt disc and it'll auto-play the media just like it were a newly bought game or DVD movie.

A better alternative for people who just want to install something then delete it or have massive amounts of storage on their hard drive and don't need to delete files after they install them should look into virtual drives. There are tons of different virtual drive software solutions out there including shareware versions such as: Alcohol 120%, Daemon Tools Pro, PowerISO, and WinImage; to the freeware solutions such as: Alcohol 52%, Daemon Tools Lite, and MagicDisc. For this tutorial I will be using Daemon Tools Lite, because it is freely available and it's the most widely known virtual CD/DVD-Rom tool known.


First we'll need to download and install the software, like I said before we'll be using Daemon Tools Lite. There are a couple different versions of Daemon Tools Lite available on the Internet and I prefer an older version for Windows XP, however this version isn't compatible with the newer operating systems like Windows Vista and Windows 7. Installing version 3.47 on Windows 7 or Vista will cause your computer to bluescreen of death loop a few times until it disables it and tells you that you fucked up!

For Windows XP ONLY download Daemon Tools Lite (v3.47) here.

For Windows Vista, XP, or 7 download Daemon Tools Lite (v4.30.3) here.

After downloading Daemon Tools, go ahead and run the installer, I would do a custom install and remove any extra installer crap that comes with the programs such as the Ask toolbar or any other various crapware that comes with freeware programs. Just keep clicking next and let it install D-Tools and then once that's finished it'll ask you to restart your computer, restarting is optional for version 3.47 users but is required in the new versions.

After your restart head to the start menu or the desktop shortcut daemon tools created and start daemon tools. Now in the Taskbar at the bottom right you will notice a square box with a circular disc inside of it and a blue or red lightning bolt. Right-click this icon and go up to Virtual CD/DVD Rom and set the number of devices to however many virtual drives you want, you really only need one drive so go ahead and select just 1 drive for now, you can change this later if you'd like. A box should pop-up saying setting new number of devices, on a newly installed Daemon Tools this could take 30 - 60 seconds and once it's done the box should disappear.

Now if you go back to the Virtual CD/DVD Rom selection in the right-click menu you will notice a new "Device 0" there, it will be assigned a letter from the alphabet, we're almost finished now. Just expand that and you will notice 2 more options, mount image and select device parameters. Select Mount Image and an explorer browser will open, now navigate to the ISO file using the browser and double-click the file. It will auto-play the image and now you're ready to install! (If it doesn't auto-install open up My Computer and the ISO should be mounted as a DVD Drive with the associated letter next to it. Just double-click this to open the auto-play file.