This month I am starting a new featured blog post called “Windows 7 hidden treasures”. I love Windows 7 and these posts will focus on all that it does, right out of the box. Windows 7 has new and built-in software tools or accessories that make the whole computer easier to use. This first hidden treasure I actually use quite a lot at the office when I need to burn an ISO image to DVD: Windows Disk Image Burner.
First a definition of ISO
An ISO image is an archive file (also known as a disc image) of an optical disc in a format defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This format is supported by many software vendors. ISO image files typically have a file extension of .iso.
Why it’s used and how to use it
Most software these days are downloaded from a web site. Large or high volume software titles are easier installed from DVD. So software companies setup a ISO image of the entire DVD rather than sending, mailing, or shipping a copy. For instance, Microsoft makes ISO download of most of its software especially operating systems. To install Windows 7 for example, it needs to reside on medium that the computer can actually boot from such as DVD.
To get the ISO image onto a DVD you need ISO burner software and a DVD burner. You need to “burn” the ISO unto a DVD and that is where Windows Disk Image Burner comes in. It’s quick, it’s easy, and best of all it comes with W7 so it’s free. There are other software tools to do the same things of course but they need to be first installed and paid for most of the time. If you need to burn a quick ISO image, this tool works just fine. You can’t use it to make ISO’s or “rip” an image and that is where the third-party apps are needed.
This video from Tekzilla explains how to use it.
