THE VIRTUAL CD-ROM CONTROL PANEL FOR WINDOWS XP

Last week I used Microsoft’s material to explain that an ISO file is an exact image of a CD-ROM or a DVD.

As a Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscriber, I receive a broad number of DVDs each month. However, the items – like development platforms and the MSDN Library are available for downloading up to a month before I’ll receive the DVD.

I’ll download the ISO, and use the Virtual CD-ROM to install the application. As I wrote last week, Virtual works just as well for DVDs.

Some Microsoft downloads are only available as downloads. These are usually beta products. Right now I can download a beta of Windows Vista, the next version of Windows. It had been codenamed ‘Longhorn.’

I can also download a beta of SQL Server 2005, codenamed ‘Avalon’. I’ve installed all of these, as well as beta 2 of Visual Studio 2005, the environment I’m using now for all my new development.

Many companies give you a choice when they sell software: wait for the CD in the mail, or download it after paying by credit card. Some of the larger applications’ downloads are ISO files.

Why would someone use Virtual instead of using Nero (that we discussed last week) or a similar application to burn the ISO to disk?

Today almost every laptop comes with a CD-DVD burner. But even a year-old laptop may be fitted with only a CD burner. And a two year-old laptop might have a CD-ROM that only reads CDs, but doesn’t write to them.

Add a year or two for a desktop and you may have no choice but to use Virtual.

Without further ado, download Virtual by clicking Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel for Windows XP

The download will pop up on the screen. Click ‘Save’.

Navigate to the folder where you want to save it. In my case it was C:\microsoft downloads\Virtual CD-ROM.

The download is a Zip file.

If you’ve purchased Winzip as I’ve suggested, right-click the download and select ‘Extract Here’.

Windows XP has its own unzipper. If you don’t have Winzip, here’s what you do.

Double-click the zip file and then click ‘Run’.

Browse to the same folder as you would have with Winzip. Click ‘OK’.

Double-click the readme file to bring up the following instructions:

Readme for Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel v2.0.1.1

THIS TOOL IS UNSUPPORT BY MICROSOFT PRODUCT SUPPORT SERVICES

System Requirements – Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional

Installation instructions
=========================
1. Copy VCdRom.sys to your %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder.
2. Execute VCdControlTool.exe
3. Click “Driver control”
4. If the “Install Driver” button is available, click it. Navigate to the %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder, select VCdRom.sys, and click Open.
5. Click “Start”
6. Click OK
7. 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.
8. Select an unused drive letter from the drive list and click “Mount”.
9. Navigate to the image file, select it, and click “OK”. UNC naming conventions should not be used, however mapped network drives should be OK.

You may now use the drive letter as if it were a local CD-ROM device. When you are finished you may unmount, stop, and remove the driver from memory using the driver control.

End Readme

Copy VCdRom.sys. by selecting it and pressing Cntrl+C, or by selecting it and clicking the Copy icon on your toolbar.

%systemroot%\ is almost always C:\WINDOWS. Navigate there, then scroll down to the System32 folder.

When you double-click the System32 folder you’ll get a warning.

Click show contents of this folder. Paste the driver to the folder by clicking the Paste icon on the toolbar or by pressing Cntrl+V on the keyboard

Steps 2-7 are self-evident.

For this column I chose drive Y.

I mounted the same ISO as last week – Microsoft Outlook.

Upon clicking open,

I chose none of the special options.

Now either click the MyComputer icon on your desktop, or open it from Start.

Lo and behold, the Virtual CD-ROM is there!

Double-click Y.

Since I already have Outlook installed, I cancelled the installation.

Dennis Turner