Virtual CDRom Control Panel for XP

Unsupported Microsoft tool to allow mounting ISO images as a drive, via the VCdRom.sys driver. Somewhat hard to find on the Microsoft site, and does not appear to have a description page. Install image can be found here on download.microsoft.com.

It can be used as a free, less powerful alternative to Alcohol 120% from Alcohol Software or DAEMON Tools.

From the Readme:

Readme for Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel v2.0.1.1

THIS TOOL IS UNSUPPORT BY MICROSOFT PRODUCT SUPPORT SERVICES


System Requirements
===================
- Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional

Installation instructions
=========================
1. Copy VCdRom.sys to your %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder. 
2. Execute VCdControlTool.exe
3. Click "Driver control"
4. If the "Install Driver" button is available, click it. Navigate to the
   %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder, select VCdRom.sys, and click Open.
5. Click "Start"
6. Click OK
7. Click "Add Drive" to add a drive to the drive list. Ensure that the drive added is not
   a local drive. If it is, continue to click "Add Drive" until an unused drive letter is
   available.
8. Select an unused drive letter from the drive list and click "Mount".
9. Navigate to the image file, select it, and click "OK". UNC naming conventions should
   not be used, however mapped network drives should be OK.

You may now use the drive letter as if it were a local CD-ROM device. When you are
finished you may unmount, stop, and remove the driver from memory using the driver control.

Bugs

A few bugs I've tripped over:

• Any hang in the driver will require a reboot to clear.
• Attempting to mount a non- ISO-9660 image (eg. MS-DOS floppy image) may cause the driver to hang.
• No support for Rock-Ridge Extensions (not really a bug, and not surprising, either). Get a UNIX box.

And, obviously:

• Won't work on Vista.
• Won't work on Windows 7.