

The resulting burned CD will have filesĤ) There are also utilities available that allow you to You’ll see that this, then, is almost the Perfect for distributing, again, a smaller disk image likeģ) Burn ISO file. Of the reason you explain: size and cost. Images distributed as ISO files, for example.Ģ) ISO files aren’t typically used for HD images, for much To represent/contain an exact disk image. (Screenshot: )Īll that you need to do is use those tools’ view or extraction functions on the ISO file to examine its contents or extract some or all of the files you need.ġ) Compression isn’t the point of an ISO file.


Some of the popular archiving utilities, including 7 Zip, can also read and extract the contents of ISO files. Treat the ISO file as if it were an archive In the case of a Linux distribution, you’ll probably even be able to boot from the disc you just created.Įven when you’re not dealing with software distribution, simply burning the ISO file to a disc will make the contents of the ISO readable by simply reading the contents of that disc. When you examine the completed disc, you’ll see all the files and folders that were contained within the ISO image. (Screenshot: )Ĭlick on Burn disc image to have Windows walk you through the process. iso, and on Show more options, if present. If your computer has a DVD burner, Windows supports burning an ISO directly. For example, if you download a Linux distribution, what you’ll most likely download is actually an. ISO files are frequently used to distribute CD or DVD images. You can navigate through its contents to examine what it contains. The virtual disk, a “faux” DVD drive, in this case is read-only.

Windows 11 Setup ISO file, mounted as faux DVD drive. iso file and make it appear as if it were another disk drive on your system. (Screenshot: )Ĭlick on Mount, in the resulting pop-up menu, and Windows will load the. There are a few ways to deal with ISO files. The operating system looks to see what format was used (FAT32, NTFS, and the like), and then interpret the contents of the ISO file as if it were reading the data from an actual disk. Just like a real disk, the raw data represents files, folders, and formatting details, when interpreted correctly. There’s nothing about the ISO format that actually knows about files, folders, or even disk formats. The important difference is that an ISO is a byte-for-byte copy of the low-level data actually stored on a disk. zip file contains a collection of files and folders. It contains all the files and folders from that disk, much like a. ISOs are a type of archiveĪn ISO 1 file is kind of like a. Tools like 7-Zip can also read the contents of ISO files. Windows can also burn the disk image to actual discs by clicking on “Burn” instead. ISO files can be mounted directly as faux disk drives by right clicking on them in Windows File Explorer and selecting “Mount”.
