What’s an ISO file?
A lot of useful things come packaged in a large file with the extension ISO. Unfortunately, neither Windows XP nor Windows Vista knows what to do with an ISO file. Neither do many home PC users. They download some application they want to try out and are then baffled by what to do next. Some do not know what kind of file they have because they do not have extensions enabled and are stymied since double-clicking the file gets them nowhere. Others know that ISO files are somehow connected with CD or DVD disks so they copy the ISO file to a CD or DVD only to find that nothing happens when they try to run the disk.
So what is an ISO file and what do you do with it? ISO files are a convenient way to distribute large software packages over the Internet. An ISO file is a complete image of the contents of a CD or DVD merged into a single file. Copying the ISO file itself to a CD or DVD does not reproduce the original disk, however. The contents of the ISO file must be extracted by software designed for that purpose. Commercial disk burning software such as that from Nero or Roxio can make proper disks from ISO files or you can use a variety of free programs. ImgBurn is one and IsoRecorder is another.
Burning the contents of an extracted ISO file to a disk is necessary when you want a separate bootable medium- for example, when you are trying out a Linux distribution or creating one of the useful emergency disks like UBCD. Often, however, it is not required to place the contents of an ISO file on an external medium. If the ISO file is just a convenient package for a large application, the contents can be extracted to a folder on your computer with appropriate software. For example, the very good all-around archiving program 7-Zip can be used for this purpose.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.