Windows 8 to Support Native ISO and VHD Mounting
Mount those ISOs in Windows 8 without any additional tools.
Many of you have likely handled disc image files or even virtual hard drives. Sometimes there's no need to burn a DVD if you already have the disc image on your hard drive. While there is third-party software that will quickly and conveniently mount a disc image so that it appears as a DVD drive, such functionality will be baked into Windows 8.
Rajeev Nagar, principal group program manager for Windows, detailed Windows 8's built-in ISO and VHD mounting support.
"So how does this work in Windows 8? It’s quite simple – just 'mount' the ISO file (you can select mount from the enhanced Explorer ribbon or double-click or right-click on the file), and a new drive letter appears, indicating that the contents are now readily accessible," he wrote. "Underneath the covers, Windows seamlessly creates a 'virtual' CDROM or DVD drive for you on-the-fly so you can access your data."
Windows 8 will also support mounting of virtual drives.
"The Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format is a publicly-available image format specification that allows encapsulation of the hard disk into an individual file for use by the operating system as a virtual disk in all the same ways physical hard disks are used," Nagar explained. "VHDs are handy for portability of system settings or to play back what has been saved as a snapshot of a system."
"Accessing a VHD in Windows 8 is as simple as what we’ve done with ISO files, but there is one important difference: rather than appearing as a removable drive (as is the case with ISO), VHDs appear as new hard drives," wrote Nagar.
Check out a demo of this function in the video below:
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I personally hate the ribbon, all it should be is just right click and be done with it.
This is handy considering I use ISO's to install a lot of my programs. Maybe I might just stick with my XP system till 8 is launched.
Welcome to 2002, Microsoft.
This is handy considering I use ISO's to install a lot of my programs. Maybe I might just stick with my XP system till 8 is launched.
lol windows XP fail, thats like saying yeah I think im gonna stick with my windows 3.1 till something with less of a footprint comes out.
unless they get support for all the other image formats as well , this is just a half-***ed attempt.
lol windows XP fail, thats like saying yeah I think im gonna stick with my windows 3.1 till something with less of a footprint comes out.
Skipping over Windows 7 might be a good idea for anyone who is happy with windows XP, seems to me there will be many new and useful features in Windows 8
Personally, I am done with windows XP...
I know when I change partitions on a dual boot system (Ubuntu and Windows) the GRUB gets corrupted. Will this VHD and image mounting thing affect this GRUB? I am not sure if Windows 8 will address this realm of issues. Also which HDD should you install the boot loader (Ubuntu HDD or Windows HDD)? I install it onto the Ubuntu HDD under advanced installation. This way Windows Backup works correctly if I boot to Windows w/o using GRUB.
unless they get support for all the other image formats as well , this is just a half-***ed attempt.
The problem is that pretty much all of your other formats are not formalized standards in any way.
haha too late, barely anyone uses discs now. and i hate the stupid ribbon! sticking with 7.
About f*$%ing time.
lol windows XP fail, thats like saying yeah I think im gonna stick with my windows 3.1 till something with less of a footprint comes out.
o no, it couldn't be that someone just doesn't like windows vista or 7, and it sure isnt the fact that xp still runs perfectly fine.
i have more problems with the 2 win 7 pcs than my xp machine that hasn't been formated in 2-3 years and survived 6 hard drive failures.
i'm hoping that with win 8, ms addresses all my complaints, but we all know that will never happen.
i have a utility that does this, to be included with an OS makes no real difference to me.
This "news" is 12 days old.
Personally, I would love to go to 7, but my 4 year old hardware is too old to run 7 properly. So, I'm trying to save up to get new hardware, and right now, XP is working fine for me.
these comments are making me laugh... don't like the ribbon - hide it... sticking with xp - it's insecure and more than a decade old... happy computing
Finally catching up to Linux....good job (not) M$! Get with the program!
unless they get support for all the other image formats as well , this is just a half-***ed attempt.
BIN/CUE and IMG files are treated the same as ISO by Microsoft. All of their existing tools work just fine with them. If you really think some other proprietary image format is important and needs recognition, you're delusional.
Nice feature now I wont have to use ultra ISO.
Will it work for my MS_OFFICE_2010_NO_CDKEY_REQUIRED.iso?
Will it work for my MS_OFFICE_2010_NO_CDKEY_REQUIRED.iso?
i think... NO
My 600gb of iso? maybe the microsoft use the old format /q with the iso. LOL
Windows 7 already supports mounting and booting VHD files, granted it isn't nearly as convenient. You have to open up Computer Management and then go to Disk Management in order to mount them. I'm glad they're making this easier and adding iso support, but this should have been added to Windows a long time ago. Even Mac OSX has had built in disc image mounting and tools for ages.
*slow clap*
Welcome to the party, Windows. I've been doing this natively in various unixes since the mid-90's
Can MS please add native mount .bin files to win8!! Oh and while your at it native .rar features too!
haha too late, barely anyone uses discs now. and i hate the stupid ribbon! sticking with 7.
Disk images can be used to digitally distribute software.
Most Mac OS X software u can download is packaged inside disk images (.dmg).
Hope the add in WIM support as well
Ok, I'm sold Microsoft I'll buy Windows 8. Goodbye Daemon Tools! The ability to burn .iso images to CDs was nice in Windows 7 but this takes the cake.
This is intensely great. Now I can finally bid yet another piece of extra software goodbye!
o no, it couldn't be that someone just doesn't like windows vista or 7, and it sure isnt the fact that xp still runs perfectly fine.i have more problems with the 2 win 7 pcs than my xp machine that hasn't been formated in 2-3 years and survived 6 hard drive failures. i'm hoping that with win 8, ms addresses all my complaints, but we all know that will never happen.
Yeah & my model T still runs just fine! Maybe its your hardware that's the problem buddy.
I wonder if it's auto mount when click on ISO? If it does, then it could mean we can just double click on ISO file in Media Center and it will load the movies.
wtf is an iso? I still use floppies.
This is handy considering I use ISO's to install a lot of my programs. Maybe I might just stick with my XP system till 8 is launched.
Hi runswindows95