Why I Ditched Daemon Tools/Alcohol 120%


Recommended Posts

UPDATE: They now have a signed version, so 64-bit users are good to go!

Well guys, I'm not sure how many of you have to mount an image routinely (I do because I create bootable USB drives all the time), but I got sick on tired of Daemon Tools, PowerIso, and Alcohol 120/52. After a tiiny bit of googling, I found this gem:

WinCDEmu - Main Site

Source Forge Site

It's fantastic. It's open source, a little less than half a megabyte, and is ridiculously easy to use. It supports ISO, CUE, IMG, BIN, NRG, MDF/MDS, CCD and RAW formats, and all you have to do to mount an image is to right click on any of the mentioned image files and then click "Select Drive Letter and Mount" and that's it! To unmount, you just go into My Computer, right click the virtual drive, and click eject, and that's it, it disappears.

This has been such a boon for me, I hated having to install such bloated software which did tons and tons more than I needed from a mounting program. Undoubtedly, there might be many of you who need those advanced features, but for those of you who simply need mounting and unmounted, this is your app, it will get the job done.

Right now, I'm using it mount DVD backup images to watch whenever I want. Saves a lot of time that I don't have to rip them :)

Anyways, just thought you guys might be interested.

Nice one, it does sound interesting and to be honest anything that is open source can easily be improved if there are any problems (which i am sure there aren't) i'll give it a blast as soon as i get a chance...

According to their site, this is an UNSIGNED application, meaning it doesn't support x64 Vista/Win7.

Daemon Tools and Virtual CloneDrive are signed, and do support x64 Vista/Win7.

If you read carefully, you'll notice that they are rought a little more than 60% of the way to getting a signed application. Unlike Daemon Tools and Virtual CloneDrive, Sysprogs is an open source freeware community, and they must rely on user donations rather than revenue from past sales.

Just gave it a try on Windows 7.. installed fine, first time trying to mount an iso and it failed :(

What version of Windows 7 are you running? 32 or 64? Also, I find that you need to make sure it asks you if it's ok to install an unsigned driver. Once or twice when I installed it, it did not show me that dialog and by extension did not work.Perhaps try uninstalling and reinstalling?

What version of Windows 7 are you running? 32 or 64? Also, I find that you need to make sure it asks you if it's ok to install an unsigned driver. Once or twice when I installed it, it did not show me that dialog and by extension did not work.Perhaps try uninstalling and reinstalling?

using 32bit. it installed ok, asked about it being unsigned, but i allowed the driver to install.

just uninstalled, will try again.

i use magicdisc from magiciso

http://www.magiciso....sc-overview.htm

Same here! I love magicdisc and have been using it for a while now. I got tired of having to reboot every time I installed Daemon Tools and with magicdisc you don't have to.

Kinda sad, I was trying to point out a fresh open source tool and it's getting dominated by nominations for other tools :/. Ah well.

Yes yes, we know you love WinCDEmu. But there is no harming pointing out alternatives to the alternative. People have different tastes ;)

Is there any way of testing a bootable USB drive without having to restart the computer every time?

Some app that could just mount and boot from USB drive virtually?

I doubt it. Your best bet is just to grab a copy of VirtualBox (freeware) and virtualize it yourself.

Yeah, they don't have a signed 64-bit version. :/

Since the whole bit of SPTD dragging their feet with Win7 beta support, I've been sticking with Virtual CloneDrive.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • I don’t get why if I bought the game on the last get I needed to pay $40 to upgrade to the new version in the first place and people who love the game and play a lot would have upgraded already so this is just PR and a chance to grab new players who forgot the game long time ago I think
    • The term "use" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that headline. "Use" can mean opening ChatGPT occasionally to ask for the definition of a word or information about a specific topic. If you frame the question around how many people use it as a daily driver in their work or personal lives, that number is a lot smaller. Those are the people who pay for AI. Nearly everyone else is happy to use it for free, but doesn't see enough value in it to pay for it.
    • No support for Windows Hello!
    • I think you meant the "ntfs3" driver, but yes there have been a lot of fixes for it in this release and previous releases, not 100% sure if the issue you mentioned is fixed though. In any case, the new "ntfs" driver in 7.1 doesn't have that issue (at least, no reports of such have come thru), but your kernel needs to explicitly enable support for the new driver first (like how CachyOS kernel has it), and you need to edit your mount points in /etc/fstab to use "ntfs" instead of the other drivers.
    • Epic Games says Unreal Engine 6 will help developers "build content faster" using AI models by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Epic Games is rolling out the latest major update to Unreal Engine 5 today, and at the same time, the company also dropped some information on the next-generation version of the product, Unreal Engine 6. This was already revealed a few weeks ago alongside the new Rocket League upgrade reveal. The company says it is combining the features of Unreal Engine and Unreal Editor for Fortnite to create this new version of its popular media creation tool. On top of creating entire games, the new engine will also focus on letting developers operate large-scale live service titles more easily, whether by shipping content into their own ecosystems or into Fortnite. The use of large language models is also mentioned here, with Epic saying it will be a core part of the engine. "We see LLMs, generative AI models, and tools like Claude and Codex playing a central role in helping you build content faster while maintaining the creative control you need," adds the company. Here is the rundown of what's new about version 6 of Unreal Engine: With all these changes to the programming model, portability upgrades, and generative AI integration, Epic says the new version of the engine will "change a lot about how games are made." The company aims to ship Unreal Engine 6 into early access in late 2027, with a full release planned for 12-18 months later. Epic Games also dropped a lengthy blog post about the new Unreal Engine 5.8 update for game developers over here. The release is focused on delivering better performance, customization, and streamlined workflows for development teams. This will be the final major update for this version of the engine before Epic switches to focus fully on Unreal Engine 6's early access launch.
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      Vincian earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • First Post
      Jocimo earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      suprememobiles48 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Windows Guy earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      Prasann earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      502
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      162
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      86
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      67
    5. 5
      neufuse
      65
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!