WinISO is a disc image editor for Windows that opens ISO files and other CD, DVD and Blu-ray images. You can change their contents without rebuilding the disc from scratch. It is aimed at people who need to adjust an installation image, update a game or data disc backup, or move an image between formats used by different burning and emulation tools. The developer has kept WinISO running on current 64-bit Windows. It is no longer sold as a new licence; the download is provided for existing users.
Working inside an image
When you open an image, WinISO shows its file tree in the main window, much like a folder in Windows Explorer. You can add files and folders with the Add Files and Add Directory commands, or drag them in from Explorer. You can delete selected entries, rename them from the Edit menu or the right-click menu, and copy them to another location inside the same image.
You can also view or run files directly from the image. This helps when checking a setup program or a document before deciding what to change. The Extract command copies selected items out to a folder chosen from a drop-down list. This lets you pull a single driver or configuration file from an image without unpacking all of it.
Saving only what changed
Large images, such as operating system installers, are slow to rewrite. WinISO handles this by overwriting only the sections of the image file that were modified and leaving the rest in place. Replacing a few files in a multi-gigabyte image therefore does not require the program to rebuild the whole image, which shortens the save considerably.
Image format conversion
WinISO converts between the common disc image formats: ISO, CUE/BIN, NRG, MDF/MDS, CCD and IMG. This matters because burning programs and virtual drive tools often accept only some of these. For example, you can turn a BIN/CUE pair into a single ISO file. You can also save an ISO as an NRG or MDS image for software that expects those formats.
Mounting as a virtual drive
The Mount command, on the toolbar or under the Tools menu, attaches the open image to a virtual optical drive. WinISO reports the drive letter it used and offers to open that drive in Explorer. The image then appears in the computer’s drive list like a physical CD or DVD. You can install and run programs, play games or access audio from it without burning anything. Unmount detaches the drive again.
WinISO can mount an image after editing without saving it first. You can then try a modified installer or disc in its changed state. If something is missing, you can make further edits before writing the final image.
Burning edits to disc
WinISO burns images to CD, DVD and Blu-ray media. As with mounting, you can write edited content straight to disc without first saving a new image file. This suits one-time jobs, such as producing a single corrected disc, where keeping a separate modified image on the hard drive serves no purpose.
