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It was announced that Microsoft Windows 8 operating system will have the native feature of mounting ISOs without any third-party software. Users will be able to mount .iso in Windows Explorer with Mount button and the mounted ISOs will then appear as a virtual CD/DVD drive with which users can work with them much like with physical media.
About ISO files
ISO images generally represent digital copy of data located on physical CD or DVD disc in structure defined by ISO 9660 standard, which specifies the volume and file structure of compact read-only optical disks for the information interchange between information processing systems.
How to access ISO files in Windows 8
To access .iso files, users need to install program capable of working with ISO format, which usually is the application that can create, burn or mount ISOs.
This new feature will be seamlessly integrated to new Windows Explorer ribbon menu as you can see at the following screenshots.
Ribbon solution of ISO mounting in Windows 8. Click on the screenshots to enlarge them.
However, Windows 8 will be only able to read ISO images, it still won't have support to create them from physical discs. Perhaps Windows 9 will also be able to create ISO files....