How to Install Software Distributed as ISO Files
Using ISO Installation Files
Software may be distributed on CD's (or DVD's) or downloaded.
Downloaded software may be downloaded as a compressed file such as a zip file or an executable zip file. These files are first uncompressed and then the installation proceeds on the extracted files.
Instead of compressed files, a single file that is the "image" of an installation cd may be created and made available for downloading. These are iso files (file names have the extent ".iso").
Disc image files (iso files) need to first be burned to a cd with the data in the iso file. The iso file contains all the data stored on the original disc (folders, text files, executable files, etc) but as a single file.
Note that burning an iso file is not the same as simply copying files to a cd. That would just copy the single .iso file rather than extracting and writing all its contents.
Requirements
Hardware: You need a cd or cd/dvd burner.
Software: You need software that will burn iso images.
This will extract and write the contents of the iso file to a cd.
Infra Recorder is free software for Windows (95 through Vista) that has a "Burn Image..." option.
It is free and available at:
http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/
Using Infra Recorder
- Insert a blank CD in the drive and select Do nothing or Cancel if an autorun dialog pops up.
- Open Infra Recorder, and select the 'Actions' menu, then 'Burn image'.
- Select the iso image file you want to use, then click 'Open'.
- In the dialog, click 'OK'.
You now have an installation cd.
Here is a snapshot of the Infra Recorder and the option to use to burn an .iso file to a disc.
Note that when the Burn Image... Action is selected, the status line at the bottom of the Infra Recorder window displays the message:
Write the contents of a disc-image to a CD.
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