Geek and a Half

February 2nd, 2007 by Jake

Forget Alcohol 120% and DaemonTools, Microsoft has their own virtual drive utility, and it’s free.

It’s called the Virtual CDRom Control Panel (Peraonslly, I like Microsoft Virtual Image Mount Utility, or MVIMU, more.), and while it doesn’t come with Windows by default and doesn’t look as shiny and pretty as some of their other utilities or Microsoft’s new operating system, it does get the job done (and it’s really small!). Download link and usage instructions after the jump.

Download the utility here: VCdControlUtility.zip, 14.7KB, 2 Files

How to install the Microsoft Virtual Mount Utility: (if you’re confident, read the really short instructions below)

• Download and unzip VCdControlTool.zip to a temporary location.
• Move the file VCdRom.sys to C:\Widnows\System32\ (or your default Windows installation folder, if not C:\Windows).
• Move the file VCdControlTool.exe to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual Mount Utility\.
• Create a shortcut to VCdControlTool.exe and move it to the Start Menu for easy access.
• Run VCdControlTool.exe.
• Click “Driver Control…”.
• Click “Install Driver…”.
• Select C:\Windows\System32\VCdRom.sys.
• Click “Start”. You should see the driver details in the top window.
• Click “OK” and then “Add Drive.”
• Navigate to an ISO image on your computer.
• Click “Mount”.
• Now go browse the virtual drive letter in My Computer. Your ISO image should be mounted!
• Note: If the mount failed, try creating a new virtual drive. The first time I created mine, it didn’t show up in “My Computer” and wasn’t valid (nothing would mount). The second time around, though, everything went smoothly.

Advanced Instructions (for you really smart people): Download and unzip. Move the driver file to your System32 directory. Run the program, click “Driver Control…”, find the driver file you just moved to System32, click Start. Go back and create a new virtual drive and mount an ISO.

Pros:

• It’s really small!
• No need to confuse yourself over the advanced virtual drive programs like DaemonTools and Alcohol 120%, the interface is very simple
• Support some obscure virtual image filetypes like *.udf, *.cdfs, *.jo, and *.rock
• Supports the most popular virtual image filetype: ISO (with/without Joliet)

Cons:

• Doesn’t have as many options
• Doesn’t support other popular image formats, like *.nrg, *.cue/*.bin
• May or may not work for you (it isn’t supported by Microsoft)
• The interface is simplified and definately not visually appealing

So if you want a free, small alternative to the big-name virtual mount applications out there, try Microsoft’s.