DAEMON Tools Lite

DAEMON Tools is a Windows program that lets you create virtual devices and mount images on them.

DAEMON Tools is an application that lets you create, manage and use virtual devices. The most common of these devices are virtual drives, such as a virtual CD or DVD. Mounting an image essentially means reading a file, but the difference is that the virtual CD-ROM, for instance, is reading that file as physical CD-ROM would read a physical CD, and Windows interacts with that virtual CD-ROM just as it would a physical version.

This has a number of applications, but perhaps the most common for the average user is that you can access a disc image without burning it to disc. This can be particularly convenient when you have a disc image that you’ll only use once or twice, so you avoid wasting a disc. Likewise, if you have a disc you use frequently, mounting an image you store locally can be more convenient as well as perhaps avoid wear and tear on the original disc, which you can keep somewhere safe.

Virtual devices don’t have to be one-and-done assignments; although they can be. Drives are registered with Windows and assigned a drive letter, and they’ll automatically be available at startup unless you force DAEMON Tools not to load with Windows. Images mount very fast, so there’s no problem swapping back and forth, but if you have to do that often, then you’re better offer creating another virtual drive. The program supports a wide range of disc image formats, including BWT, CCD, CDI, ISO, MDS and NRG.

DAEMON Tools can also emulate a number of different copy protection mechanisms, such as SecuROM. Although this feature can be used to access software illegally, it also has some very practical purposes. If you want to back up an original disc that’s copy protected, you don’t have to worry about stripping out that protection. The program will simply copy it into the image, and then it can emulate the protection mechanism in order to let that disc image operate as normal.

DAEMON Tools is one of the most highly polished tools for managing virtual devices and disk images, and although it’s quite suitable for home use, it’s employed in many professional environments. If there’s a downside to the application it’s that the UI is a bit outdated, but outside of creating a virtual device and some maintenance tasks, you’re generally be interfacing with DAEMON Tools through the Windows interface, so that isn’t much of a problem.

Pros

• Create and manage virtual drives
• Highly polished solution
• Emulates many protection mechanisms

Cons

• Outdated user interface