How to unzip an iso file to your computer. How to run an ISO file? ISO files: how to extract images using Ultra ISO

The ISO format is a common file type for distributing and using information extracted from optical media. Initially, data was written to physical disks; the main difference from the image is the reading mechanism, which starts from the input area (closer to the center of the CD/DVD) and ends with the output block, at the edge of the disk.

The input area contains table of contents data, address space, headings, title, and length. Damage to these sectors usually results in the inability to read the entire media, although in some cases it is possible to restore the information.

On CD/DVD media, files are recorded using a laser, which leaves micro-pits (pits) on their surface, this is somewhat similar to the structure of a vinyl record for a player; on DVD their density is higher, and therefore the volume is several times larger.

The recording standard is ISO 9660 (CDFS); for DVD, the more universal UDF specification, which was developed to replace the previous one, can be used.

At a time when Internet connections were not as fast as they are now, information was transferred (literally) from hand to hand using various media: floppy disks and optical disks. With the advent of the era of fast Internet, it became possible to transfer significant amounts of data in a matter of hours and minutes. This has led to the rapid development of software that allows physical media to be copied, converted into regular files, after which they can be distributed over the World Wide Web.

Today, the software allows any user not only to copy, but also to create their own images, which is useful when creating operating system distributions, backup copies, multimedia discs and so on.

Some software manufacturers (for example, computer games) distribute their products through servers; access to the download link becomes relevant after payment via electronic money or bank transfer.

For example, the world famous gaming platform Steam supports this function. Thousands of users around the world purchase games online.

What to do with the image

There are two main ways to use ISO files.

Recording to optical media. It is necessary when long-term storage is required, and also if you plan to give a game, other software or a music album/movie to your acquaintances, friends or relatives. At the same time, you can make an original engraving on the disk with drawings and inscriptions, and print a colorful cover on a printer.
Run on a virtual drive in the operating system. In this case, you can immediately start using the data contained in the image. Install a game, watch a movie, or play a music track from an album. Requires special software and installation of virtual media drivers.

Programs for working with ISO

There are many paid and free programs for working with images.

DAEMON Tools Lite. Where to begin

DAEMON Tools Lite. Usage

Now the software can be used to install programs.

Right-click in the “Images” field; this is the largest space in the program window.
In the context menu that appears, select “Add image” and select required file in a standard explorer window. After this, the icon of our image will appear in the main program window.
If you hover your mouse pointer over it and right-click, a menu will appear through which you can mount the image into the virtual drive created when installing the program. To do this, select the mount option.
Now, at the bottom of the program window, the disk icon will be marked as if it were a disk, and a window will pop up asking you what action to take.
If you open “My Computer”, you can see a “loaded” virtual disk, so the system “thinks” that there is media in the drive. You can open it and copy files from it, run existing programs.
If the game is recorded on the disk and has autorun, then after mounting it an installer window will appear through which you can install it on your hard drive.

Important! It should be noted that in cases where the game requires a CD in the drive (for example, to load files during the game), a virtual drive can replace a physical one.

Pros and cons of ISO

Among the obvious advantages are:

no physical drive required, some laptops and netbooks do not have CD drives;
ease of transfer of a disk image, represented by a single file, around the world. Physical media can only be sent by mail;
high speed of reading, and, consequently, installation of programs;
ease of use and reliable storage. Optical media are scratch-resistant; the collection of images on your hard drive is more reliably protected.

The disadvantages are the need to use additional software (Windows 8 and later versions have a built-in function for working with ISO), and some discs are very difficult to copy if they are protected from creating images from them.

Video - How to install an Iso file on a computer without a disk

Sometimes there is a need to extract files from an ISO image. Do this using standard tools operating system not very convenient - it is more advisable to use third-party products. Therefore, in this article we will tell you in detail which software to use to open an ISO image and provide the correct sequence of actions shown in the screenshots. But first, let's explain why ISO images are needed. These files store a variety of contents, so every computer user should know how to properly handle them. Indeed, in certain cases it is necessary to open such an image and perform the necessary manipulations with its contents. For example, install a program or simply look at the list of files located inside.

What is an ISO image?

Let's figure out together what an ISO image is.

You may encounter this problem when downloading software from the Internet. ISO is also used to distribute movies via torrents in high quality.

Having a disk image, the user can connect it like a regular optical drive. As already mentioned, ISO is often used to distribute programs and computer games. This format also has an additional purpose - for duplicating valuable data from regular disks. After all, the latter are not very reliable and can fail due to minor mechanical damage.

How to open an ISO file using UltraISO

The most convenient way to open an ISO is to use . If you wish, you can purchase a licensed version on the official website by entering search engine corresponding request. And also download it from open sources, where you don’t need to pay. After installing UltraISO, follow the instructions below.

To open an ISO file, you need to run UltraISO and select the “Open” item located on the toolbar with the cursor.

Then you need to specify the path to the disk image. After doing this, you will see a tree list of the information stored in the ISO file.

To extract a specific file from an image, you need to hover over it, right-click and select "Extract to...".

After this, you need to specify the path to save the extracted file and wait a little while the program performs the desired action.

How to open an ISO file using DAEMON Tools

This is a very advanced program for mounting ISO images, but extracting files through it is not very convenient. Although this method is still worthy of consideration. You may not have any other software on your computer other than DAEMON Tools, and you will need to extract information from the optical disk image immediately. It is enough to complete the task.

DAEMON Tools must be launched and in the window that opens, find the icon with the “disk” icon. You should click on it with the cursor.

Then you need to specify the path to the optical disk image and add it to the directory.

The program will automatically add the new drive to the My Computer folder. You can work with it like a regular optical drive.

How to Open an ISO File with 7-Zip

A fairly simple way to extract data from an ISO image is to use the 7-Zip program. It is a very common archiver that is installed on almost every personal computer. However, not many users know that 7-Zip is capable of working with images optical disks. Therefore, we will tell you how to unpack an ISO container using it.

To do this you need to launch it. Explorer will appear on the screen with additional tools.

To open an optical disc image, you need to find it on your computer and double-click on it. The ISO will open as a normal folder.

To extract a file from an ISO, you need to hover over it and right-click. Then select “Extract” from the menu that opens.

How to open an ISO file on Windows in order to run the installation, change the contents of the disk image, play the multimedia contents of the ISO file. Many users are faced with the need to open or run files in the “.ISO” format on their computer.

An ISO file is a CD image file or DVD disc, in which all content is saved as a single file. This is a complete digital copy of the original CD. All information inside the ISO file is saved as a single disk image file.

Users often come across ISO files when they download games, multimedia discs, programs, operating systems, etc. from the Internet to their computer. The question arises: how to open ISO image files on a computer?

How to open an ISO file on a computer

In a normal situation, the user burns an ISO file to an optical CD/DVD disc, then launches this disc to install an operating system, program, launch or install a computer game, play multimedia files, etc.

This method is not always justified, because to use it you need to have a disk drive on your computer for playing optical discs, in addition, you will need the optical disc itself to record an ISO image file on it. Some optical discs are protected against unauthorized use.

What to do if your computer does not have a drive to run CD/DVD discs? Modern laptops are increasingly abandoning this device, because recently optical disks have become not very popular among users. How to open an ISO file without a disk on a computer?

To open an ISO file, you can use several methods:

usage bootable flash drive;
mounting the image on a virtual drive using a program or built-in operating system tool;
opening an ISO image using the program.

The use of a bootable USB flash drive is necessary to record an ISO image of the operating system Windows systems, anti-virus healing disk, system recovery disk from a specialized program, or in other similar cases. First, the user writes a disk image to a bootable USB flash drive, and then boots it on the computer with USB storage, to perform certain actions, for example, to install Windows.

The most common method: mounting an image file in ISO format using a virtual CD/DVD drive. A specialized program creates Windows virtual drive unit. The system works with it as with a regular physical drive, the disk image is used like a regular CD.

The operating systems Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8 have a built-in tool for creating a virtual drive, so there is no need to use third-party software to open ISO files.

If the question arises of how to open an ISO file on Windows 7, then in this case, you will have to use the services of third-party programs that will help mount the ISO image on your computer.

The third method is to open the ISO file in an imaging program or archiver. Which program to open an ISO file? For example, suitable UltraISO programs, Alcohol 120%, Alcohol 52%, or Daemon Tools Lite (there are other similar programs), or archive programs such as WinRAR or 7-Zip.

Mounting an ISO file in Daemon Tools Lite

DAEMON Tools Lite is a free version of the DAEMON Tools program, designed for emulating virtual drives and creating disk images. Install the program on your computer in the Windows 7 operating system to run or open a disk image in ISO format.

After installing the application, a virtual BD-ROM drive will appear in Explorer. IN free version Daemon Tools Lite can mount up to 4 virtual drives.

Follow these steps to mount an ISO file in Daemon Tools Lite:

Click on the "Quick Mount" icon located in the lower left corner of the Daemon Tools Lite program window. Another way: right-click on the program icon in the notification area and select “Mount”.

In the Explorer window, select the desired image and click the “Open” button.
In the AutoPlay window, select the required action. In this case, you can immediately start installing the program or open a folder using Explorer to view the files.

The Explorer window displays the mounted disk image in the virtual drive.

View an open ISO image in a virtual disk.

To launch an application from an open image folder, click on the corresponding file located inside the folder.

To extract an image from a virtual drive in Daemon Tools Lite, do the following:

Right-click the virtual drive in Explorer.
Select "Extract" from the context menu.

How to open an ISO file in UltraISO

UltraISO is a program for working with disk images on a computer. In the program you can open, create, edit, save a disk image, burn it to a CD/DVD, or create a bootable USB flash drive.

The UltraISO program adds its virtual drive to the computer to open and run a disk image in ISO format. When installing the program on your computer, you need to select the “Install ISO CD/DVD emulator (ISODrive)” option.

A virtual CD will appear on your computer. If you missed the option to create a virtual drive when installing the program, you can add the required number of virtual drives from the UltraISO settings, including for the portable version of UltraISO Portable.

Now let's see how to open an ISO file using UltraISO.

To open a disk image file in the program window, follow these steps:

In the UltraISO program window, go to the “File” menu and click on “Open” in the context menu.
In the Explorer window, select the ISO disk image.
The UltraISO window will display the contents of the file in the upper right area.

Now the files from the disk image are available for performing the necessary operations: copying, modifying, burning to a CD or DVD, creating a bootable USB flash drive, etc.

Go to the “Tools” menu, click on “Mount to virtual drive...”.

In the “Virtual Drive” window, click on the “Mount” button.

2 way to mount a disk image in UltraISO, go through the following steps:

Right-click on the virtual disk drive.
From the context menu, first select “UltraISO” and then “Mount”.
In the “Open ISO file” window, select the disk image and click the “Open” button.

To open the image folder in Explorer, right-click on the virtual drive and select “Open” from the context menu. To autorun the image on your PC, right-click on the virtual drive, select “UltraISO” in the context menu, and then “Startup”.

You can extract an ISO file from the virtual drive emulator in UltraISO in the following way:

Right-click on the virtual disk.
In the menu that opens, select “UltraISO” and then “Extract”.
Restart the Explorer window.

How to open an ISO file on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8

The Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 8 operating systems have a built-in tool for mounting disk images in a virtual drive. Therefore, there is no point in installing third-party software on your computer because there is a system tool available on your PC.

Right-click on the disk image and select “Connect” from the context menu.

A virtual DVD drive with a disk image will appear in Explorer.

The user can open a file in a folder or run a program.

To remove a virtual drive from Explorer, follow these steps:

Right-click on the virtual drive and select “Eject” from the context menu.
The mounted image will disappear from Explorer along with the virtual drive.

How to open an ISO file in WinRAR

Now we will open the ISO file in the WinRAR archiver. To open ISO format files, you need to add format support in the archiver settings (by default, ISO format support is disabled).

Open the main window WinRAR programs, go to the “Options” menu, select “Settings...”.
In the "Settings" window, open the "Integration" tab. In the “Associate with WinRAR” section, check the box next to “ISO” and click on the “OK” button.

Right-click on the ISO disk image and select “Extract files…” from the context menu.

An ISO disk image will open in the WinRAR archiver window. Files from the image can be copied, extracted, modified.

Opening an ISO File in 7-Zip

The free 7-Zip archiver supports opening ISO files.

Right-click on the “.ISO” file.
From the context menu, select "7-Zip" and then "Open Archive".

Conclusions of the article

To open a file in the ".ISO" format, use a Windows operating system tool running on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, or a third-party software. Daemon Tools Lite and UltraISO programs create a virtual disk drive on your computer in which you can open a disk image, just like on a regular physical drive. WinRAR and 7-Zip archivers support extracting content from ISO files.

Unpack the ISO image into a folder and work as with regular Windows files. Divide the archived file into several parts.

In this article we will look at two examples using the Win Rar program. The program is paid, but it’s worth it; I think its analogue can be compared with 7Zip, which can be downloaded for free. To become the first option from this article, you can use 7Zip. You have come across a file extension such as Iso, you read on the Internet that it can be opened with virtual disk drive emulators. And also write such a file to a disc and work from it, launching what was in the ISO image. Programs that emulate cd dvd drives are: Alcohol 120%, Alcohol 75%, DaemonTools for recording to disc. But perhaps this approach to business does not suit you and you wanted to work with a program, for example, that is located in an Iso image as a simple file that can be launched by double-clicking the mouse. Let's print the ISO image into a regular folder, which will contain the files previously found in the ISO image. We installed WinRar and are analyzing the first option with unpacking the ISO image.
By right-clicking on an ISO image? You can choose the action: 1.) view the contents of the "ISO" 2.) Unpack the "ISO" image into a folder named the same as the image itself.

1.) the link option in the context menu takes us to a window for viewing the contents of the "ISO" image. Click the "Extract to" button, we go to the window for editing the path, extracting the image.

The ability to write your own extraction path in 1.) the line 2.) Select the folder into which the image files will be extracted 3.) Confirm the actions with the “OK” button.

The second option in the context menu is to extract files from an ISO image. In which we do not open additional settings and viewing the image, simply unpack it into the same folder in which the image file itself is located.

File extraction process.

In any choice in the options menu, we get a folder with files, in the same folder as the image, if you did not change the path yourself as described in the first option. Below is the result after extracting and unzipping the ISO image. The folder that contains the files that were in the image and the ISO image itself.

Divide a file or folder into parts when creating an archive.

The created archive in WINRAR can be divided into equal parts, at your choice. These parts can be sent separately by mail if the file size is large and the post office does not send larger files. You can also divide an important file into two parts and send one file first, and then the second when the transaction is completed. To securely store files, you can put several archives in different places and until they all end up in one place in one folder, you or anyone else will not be able to open them, turning, say, without one archive into one file or folder, as was originally the case when several archives were created.
Right-click on the desired file or folder and select the “Winrar” “add to archive” operation in the context menu.

Next, the “Winrar” window will open to select further operations with our file. We need to select the size of the individual parts of the created archives. We have 5 options to choose from on the General tab, 5MB, 100MB, 700MB, 4095MB, 4481MB, the last option is auto. My file in this example weighs 3.37GB and I will divide it into 700MB parts. If you select the "AUTO" option, then the archiver will automatically create archives with equal weights. I select 700MB from the menu as in the picture below and click the "OK" button.

In the example folder, after creating the archive, I see 5 files with the extension "rar" of 700 MB each and the last one 481 MB. Who knows why the latter is different, write in the comment?

I gave you two options for using the WINRAR archiver. The methods I use myself, the first one especially helps. Since many programs are downloaded in an ISO image, launching a virtual disk drive is too expensive; a simple option of unpacking the image into a package is just what you need. Quickly, without unnecessary actions, less resources are spent on the computer device, in fact, one savings in everything is achieved. If you have a question about other parameters of the WinRar archiver, then I advise you to download the Help file in which you will find complete instructions from the manufacturer on using the archiver and its functions.

Links mentioned in the article:

Russian version of WINRAR x32
Russian version of WINRAR x64
Help file
To the official WINRAR website to download other versions of the program

An ISO file is an image of a CD or DVD disc. Such files are used to create an exact copy of the data contained on the disk. In this article we will talk about how to unpack an ISO file and access its contents.

If you need to unpack an ISO file, the easiest way is to use any archiver. As an example, we will demonstrate how this is done using 7-Zip as an example. You can use any other archiver that you like. For example, you can use WinRAR.

So, in order to unpack an ISO file, you need to right-click on the ISO file and select the menu item “7-Zip – Open archive”.

As a result, a 7-Zip archiver window will appear in front of you with the contents of your ISO file. From this window you can drag and drop files into the folder you need. But this method of unpacking will take more time. To unpack as quickly as possible, click on the “Extract” button.

After this, the process of extracting the ISO file will begin. The time required to unpack depends on the size of the ISO file and the performance of your computer.

Once the extraction is complete, all files from the ISO file will be located in the folder you selected.

Unpacking an ISO file using UltraISO

This is a professional tool for working with ISO files. With this program you can create, mount, unpack, and perform many other actions with ISO files. UltraISO is a paid program, but you can use the Trial version.

In order to extract an ISO file using UltraISO, you need to run UltraISO and . This can be done using the button on the toolbar or the “File – Open” menu. The CTRL+O key combination also works.

After you have opened the ISO file, all the files inside this disk image will appear in the UltraISO program window. In order to unpack them you need to select everything and right-click on them. In the window that appears, select “Extract to”.

Unpacking an ISO file with Daemon Tools Lite

You can also mount the ISO file as a virtual drive and then copy files from it. To do this, you can use Daemon Tools Lite or any other disk mounting program.

To mount an ISO file, simply open it. If you have installed latest version Daemon Tools Lite, the virtual disk will be mounted automatically.

After that, open the “My Computer” window, find the virtual disk there and also open it.

After this, the files from the ISO image will appear in front of you, and you can copy them to the folder you need.

It should also be noted that in Windows 10 you can mount ISO files without using third-party programs like Daemon Tools Lite.