Some downloads from the internet have an ISO extension. These are CD or DVD image files. You can't read the contents of these files directly. Instead, you have to burn them to a CD or DVD disc, which you can then read in order to look at the files within the ISO image. Typically, operating systems such as Linux are packaged as ISO files, as are some downloads from Microsoft. To install the product you have to burn it to a disc first.

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Also, some items that you might have downloaded from web sites are, again, ISO images, because they were originally available as a disc and the ISO format allows the precise disc layout to be preserved. If you have an ISO file and you want to examine its contents without burning it to a CD or DVD, help is at hand. A free Windows utility called ISO Opener is all you need.

It works like a standard unzip program, extracting the contents of the ISO image so you end up with a collection of standard, recognisable files that you can then deal with as you please. ISO Opener is available from and is free of charge. It's less than 1 MB to download, runs on all recent versions of Windows (I used 8.0 for my tests), and is malware-free according to VirusTotal and Web of Trust. Definitely one for the toolbox. Please rate this article.

Download the best free tool available to open ISO files: Follow a 1 minute tutorial explaining what is an.iso file and how to open it using free software - 7zip. What is an ISO file? It's actually a so called 'image', or a copy of optical disk. That said, it serves like a backup and convenient transfer container for CD's/DVD's and Bluray's.

You can either burn a disk out of it, or - just take its contents out. Ok, so you probably downloaded a game or a program in an.iso container. No problem, this simple and short tutorial will help you through.iso extraction. The most popular way of extracting and mounting ISO files still is using the program called PowerISO. Able 2 extract professional v8.0.28.0.

What to Do After Downloading ISO Files. You can extract the installation files to your hard drive using file compression software. After you extract the files.

Bad news is - it is not free. It's strange, because this extension is spread all over the internet. So, probably the last thing you would like to do is pay for a file extractor, right? Best bet for opening ISO file without using a paid piece of software is 7zip, and if you look at any free compression tool ratings, you will see that 7zip is always in the top. It's light, free and doesn't have ads and other shareware, because it's open-source. Ok, so how to open ISO files?

Here are steps mentioned in the video: 1. Navigate to 2. Open the downloaded file 3. Click 'Install' 4. Click 'Finish' 5. Locate the ISO file.

Magiciso

Right-click on it 7. In 7-zip menu choose 'Open archive' 8.

Drag-and-drop files there you want to extract them. Remember, this applies to Windows 8 and 7 as well. If this video helped you out, please leave a nice comment! Music by: Tomas Dvorak.