How to Mount (and Unmount) an ISO File in Windows

ISOs aren’t talked about as much today as they were five or ten years ago, but they continue to have their uses. An ISO is a disc image file, storing all the data you’d find on a CD, DVD or (more often these days) USB stick, and behaving just like it would on disc – with autoplay features and all.

Mounting is the process of creating a virtual CD/DVD drive on your computer so that it can run ISO files just like a disk drive would. Unmounting, meanwhile, is like hitting the “Eject” button on your disk drive.

In this article we’ll show you how to do both of these things by simply using the tools contained within Windows.

How to Mount an ISO File

We’re assuming that you’ve already created the ISO file you want to mount, or that you at least have the ISO file in question on your computer and ready for use. (If not, check out our list of the best ISO mounting software to get the tools for creating your own ISOs.)

So you have your ISO file – DVD, software disc image, game, whatever – and you want to run it. While in the past you’d need dedicated software for this, now all you need to do is the following.

1. Right-click the ISO file and click “Mount.”

2. When you do this, the contents of that ISO should immediately open and appear in Windows Explorer like they would in any old folder. In the meantime the pane on the left of Windows Explorer under the “This PC” dropdown should show a DVD/CD drive icon with the ISO name next to it.

This means your file has now mounted.

If, for example, the ISO has an “autoplay” function, then you can right-click the DVD drive icon and “Autoplay” should appear. Likewise, if the image is a direct DVD/movie image, then you can right-click it, and you’ll get the option to play it with your DVD software of choice. You’re not restricted to just browsing the ISO’s files.

How to Unmount an ISO File

For every mount there needs to be an unmount … or something to that effect. As we mentioned earlier, unmounting is basically the same thing as ejecting your disc from the drive with the added difference that the entire drive disappears from your PC when you eject. Doing this is simple.

1. Right-click the DVD drive icon and click “Eject.”

2. That’s it. Your mounted ISO file will now disappear along with the virtual DVD drive.

Conclusion

The beauty of this process is that you can mount in excess of 10 ISO files at the same time on your Windows PC, although your “This PC” section will inevitably get cluttered as a result. In the interest of keeping things neat, don’t get too carried away. If, however, you don’t mind things getting messy, then mount away!

This article was first published in May 2009 and was updated in Nov 2017.

Content Manager at Make Tech Easier. Enjoys Android, Windows, and tinkering with retro console emulation to breaking point.

Mount file iso windows

How do I mount ISO Image File In Windows 7?

In Windows 7, to mount an ISO disk image for installing software or recover backup files, you need to install a third-party utility. Now here comes WinISO Standard 6 which will allow these older versions of Windows mount ISO files as virtual CD-ROM/ DVD-ROM drives.

Mount ISO is one of the main features of WinISO. It’s dead simple so that the novice can also handle it with ease.

Here we will show you the way to mount ISO image in Windows 7 step by step.

Step 1: Download and Run WinISO

Free Download WinISO from our official website and install it. It will just take you several seconds.

Step 2: Click «Mount»

Run WinISO, open the ISO file. Click «Mount» on the toolbar, or you can also click «Tools» on the menu, then choose «Mount Image».

Step 3: Click «Open in Explorer»

A few seconds later, you will get a message: Current image has been mounted to Drive H(as an example). Then click «Open in Explorer». The extracted file list will appear in the drive.

Furthermore, you can also stop mounting the image files by pressing «Unmount».

For more guides, please take closer look here:

How to Mount and Burn ISO Files in Windows 10 and Previous

By Melanie Pinola 28 January 2016

Microsoft and other companies often distribute software as an ISO file, an exact copy of a DVD. In Windows 8 and Windows 10, you can easily work with these files without needing third-party software. Here’s how to mount the ISO image so you can see the contents and burn it to a physical disc so you can install the software on any computer.

How to Mount and Unmount an ISO File in Windows

Mounting or opening an ISO file is as simple as double-clicking on it, thanks to Windows’ built-in ISO-handling capabilities. In Windows 7 and earlier, you’d need to use a utility like Virtual Clone Drive to mount an ISO.

When you double-click on an ISO file in Windows 8 and above, however, it opens to show you the contents, just as if you were browsing a CD or DVD.

In fact, it shows up as a virtual DVD drive and is assigned a drive letter. You can open and copy individual files and folders from the ISO once it’s mounted.

When you no longer need to work with the ISO, here’s how to unmount it: Right-click on the drive and select Eject.

How to Burn an ISO file to Disc

Creating a disc of the ISO contents, whether as a backup or to install the software on other computers, is a cinch too.

1. Insert a blank CD or DVD in your writable optical drive.

2. Right-click on the ISO file and select «Burn disk image.»

3. Select «Verify disc after burning» to make sure the ISO was burned without any errors.

4. Click Burn.

That’s it! Windows Disc Image Burner will do its thing and let you know when it’s finished.

Windows 10 doesn’t include any built-in way to create an ISO file from a DVD, but there are free utilities that will help you do this, such as open-source InfraRecorder.

How to mount ISO images on Windows 10

Source: Windows Central

An ISO image is a container format designed to store the contents of a physical disk (CD, DVD, or Blu-ray). Software companies usually use this file format as a medium to distribute the applications and tools without the need to ship physical media, which can be costly and time-consuming. For example, Microsoft uses this format to distribute previews of Windows 10 to testers and many other products.

Although you can find a lot of tools to work with images, Windows 10 includes the ability to mount and mount ISO files natively without the need for extra software.

In this Windows 10 guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to mount and unmount the ISO images using File Explorer as well as PowerShell commands.

How to mount ISO image with File Explorer

On Windows 10, you can access the content of an image in at least three different ways using File explorer. You can double-click the file, you can use the content menu option, or the option available in the ribbon menu.

Mount image with double-click

To quickly mount an ISO file on Windows 10, use these steps:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Browse to the folder with the ISO image.

Double-click the .iso file file to mount it.

Source: Windows Central

Once you complete these steps, the ISO file will open like any other folder, allowing you to access and extract the contents as necessary.

Mount image from context menu

To mount an ISO image with the File Explorer context menu, use these steps:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Browse to the folder with the ISO image.

Right-click the .iso file and select the Mount option.

Source: Windows Central

Once you complete the steps, you can access the contents of the image by selecting the virtual drive from the left navigation pane.

Mount image from ribbon menu

To mount an image with the ribbon menu, use these steps:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Browse to the folder with the ISO image.
3. Select the .iso file.
4. Click the Disk Image Tools tab.

Click the Mount button.

Source: Windows Central

If you have a third-party tool to open compressed files (such as .zip, .tar, .rar, etc.), it’s possible the tool may also be configured as the default application to open ISO images. When this happens, you won’t see an option to mount images. However, you can still right-click, select the Open with submenu, and select the Windows Explorer option to mount the ISO.

Unmount image

Once you are no longer using the image, you can quickly unmount the file by right-clicking the virtual drive under This PC in File Explorer and selecting the Eject option.

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Expand This PC from the left navigation pane.

Right-click the virtual drive and select the Eject option.

Source: Windows Central

After you complete these steps, the image will no longer be accessible until you mount it again.

How to mount ISO image with PowerShell

It’s also possible to mount and unmount an image using commands with PowerShell.

Mount ISO image command

To mount an ISO image using a PowerShell command, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to mount an ISO image and press Enter:

Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath «PATH\TO\ISOFILE»

In the command, make sure to replace the «PATH\TO\ISOFILE» with the actual path of the .iso file.

For example, this command mounts an image in the «E:\» virtual drive:

Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath «E:\Windows10.iso»

Source: Windows Central

Once you complete the steps, the ISO image will mount, and you will be able to access the contents to install the application or extract the image contents from the newly-available drive letter.

Unmount ISO image command

To unmount an image with PowerShell, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for PowerShell, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to mount an ISO image and press Enter:

Dismount-DiskImage -ImagePath «PATH\TO\ISOFILE»

In the command, make sure to replace the «PATH\TO\ISOFILE» with the actual path of the .iso file.

For example, this command removes the mount for an image in the «E:\» virtual drive:

Dismount-DiskImage -ImagePath «E:\Windows10.iso»

Source: Windows Central

After you complete the steps, the virtual drive will be removed, and the image will no longer be accessible until you mount it again.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

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