Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel

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Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel

Microsoft has a little known tool called Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel that allows you to mount an ISO image as a virtual drive. This allows you to install and run software that insists that it must run from CDROM.

Download

You can download Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel from Microsoft. It doesn't seem like the Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel software has its own page yet.

Installation

After unpacking the archive by running the downloaded file and choose the extraction destination (I put mine in c:\opt\vccp). According to Microsoft you need to copy VCdRom.sys to your %systemroot%\system32\drivers (usually c:\windows\system32\drivers or c:\winnt\system32\drivers - see Windows Environment Variables for more information about Windows environment variables). However, I have not been experiencing any problem using the VCdRom.sys from the installation directory.

Once copied run the VCdControlTool.exe to start the GUI.

Inside the GUI click on "Driver control".

If the "Install Driver" button is available, click it. Navigate to the %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder, select VCdRom.sys, and click Open. Click "Start" and then click OK.

Usage

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.

Select an unused drive letter from the drive list and click "Mount". Navigate to the image file, select it, and click "OK". UNC naming conventions should not be used, however mapped network drives should be OK.

References

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/916902

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