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How to open ISO files?

by | Tuesday, 04th Dec 2007 | 85 Comments | Share

Update: Are you new to ISO? We have more resources that will help you deal with ISO files, click here to read them.

An ISO image is an image of files that can be burnt to a CD. If you’ve just downloaded an ISO file, and be able to open the ISO file and edit its contents, before burning it off on a CD, here’s a quick guide telling you how you can open an ISO file.

First, you should know that there are quite a handful of programs that let you open ISO files, but I’m going to talk only about WinRAR here, because it’s a simple tool and just does the job intended.

    • Get your copy of WinRAR from this page, double click on the setup file and the installation proceeds.

Open ISO files

    • During the setup process, WinRAR will ask you to set file associations, make sure that ISO is checked. Click ‘Done’ in the next window.

Open ISO file using WinRAR

  • Now, navigate to the folder where your ISO file is present. Notice that there’s a WinRAR icon indicating the ISO file.
  • Double click to open the ISO file.
  • WinRAR opens and the contents of the file are displayed.


Here are some more resources that will help you deal with ISO files.

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A 16 year old Techie, High School Student, Blogger and Part Time Freelance Writer from India. He writes about computers and software at Killer Tech Tips

Shankar Ganesh has written

The author of this post can be contacted at shankar@techie-buzz.com

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  1. Yo yo Man on February 23rd, 2008 at 12:40 pm #

    Yo what up G, nice guide.

  2. Ayas on December 29th, 2008 at 4:03 am #

    Hey thanks ..simple and helpful..keep it up

  3. Understood? on February 2nd, 2009 at 9:35 am #

    Umm… Is that WinRAR free?

  4. Rayne on February 9th, 2009 at 8:33 pm #

    thanks! very helpful info!

  5. Deepak Sharma on March 3rd, 2009 at 5:58 pm #

    Excellent instructions.

  6. munevar800 on April 12th, 2009 at 12:38 pm #

    winRAR is a freeware..
    you can have it free,,, ^^.

  7. kamishikome on May 5th, 2009 at 9:33 am #

    Thanks for this little guide

  8. ePunk on May 7th, 2009 at 9:50 am #

    very simple but extremely helpful !!
    thank you very much :)

  9. Zack on May 19th, 2009 at 11:01 am #

    Hey, nice guide, and yes win-rar is free.. here is the website you can download it there –> http://www.win-rar.com

    Thanks for the guide it did help me opening the iso.

  10. Fahad Hasan on May 24th, 2009 at 1:12 pm #

    Great info. I was seraching whole day how to open ISO files but thisi is very simple.

  11. haidy on June 8th, 2009 at 2:37 am #

    WinMount can also open an iso file.

    • Micheel on February 13th, 2012 at 9:30 am #

      IT CAN OPEN BUT IF U HAVE WINRAR THEN TERE’S NO NEED OF IT. :-)

  12. haidy on June 8th, 2009 at 2:39 am #

    WinMount supports mounting ISO file as a virtual disk, there are 4 ways:
    1. Using file association

    1) Open WinMount main window, Click the “Option” drop down menu, Select “Options-File Association”, tip ISO to be associated with Mount.

    2) Double-click a ISO file, WinMount will mount it to a new virtual disk.

    2. Using right-click menu

    On ISO right-click drop down menu, click “WinMount3 -> Mount to new drive”, WinMount will mount it to a new virtual disk.

    . Mount to new drive : Mount the ISO file to a new virtual drive.
    . Mount to…: Assign a disk letter for the ISO file. (Refer to “How to assign a disk?” on the bottom of this page.)

    3. Using toolbar

    1) Click the button “Mount File” on the toolbar of WinMount main interface;

    2) Select a ISO files, click “ok”. WinMount will mount it to a new virtual disk.

    4. Using drag

    Drag a ISO file to WinMount main interface, WinMount will mount it to a new virtual disk.

    How to assign a disk?

    Of course, you can assign a disk for the ISO file, such as H: or K: or whatever you like.

    1) Click the button “Mount to” on the toolbar of WinMount main interface( or right-click the ISO file and select “Mount to…”).

    2) Select a ISO file, select a drive, then WinMount would mount the ISO file to the assigned disk.

    You can also input a path for the ISO file.
    For example, select “H:\” and input “folder\folder1″, then the ISO file would be mount to “H:\folder\folder1″.

  13. kathryn on June 19th, 2009 at 10:13 pm #

    thanks, worked like a charm!

  14. Jacques Snyman | 3Q on June 28th, 2009 at 1:27 pm #

    WinRAR works for me too. But WinMount has got merit as well. For quick and easy WinRAR is king though!

  15. Blends on August 2nd, 2009 at 12:06 pm #

    Many user just run the setup but not tick the ISO on the setup. Maybe the file seem not really important to them.

  16. capik on August 27th, 2009 at 10:02 am #

    Why when I wanna open the ISO file with WinRar the warning message shows that “The archieve is either unkonown format or damaged”?What should Ido?

  17. Ruben on December 17th, 2009 at 5:13 pm #

    WinRar needs to be bundled with computers before they're shipped.

  18. Praveen on January 3rd, 2010 at 3:01 pm #

    http://www.7-zip.org/download.html does this too

  19. Rishabh Agarwal on January 6th, 2010 at 11:50 am #

    lol.. I use Ubuntu and eveything is in-built. You don't need to install a thing

  20. Williams on January 15th, 2010 at 8:30 am #

    Hey, but that winrar is not free. can you tell any other way to get it open.

    whenever i open winrar, it is telling to evaluate. How to open iso file in other way?

  21. vIvEk on January 22nd, 2010 at 8:03 am #

    hello friend
    can you tell me what to do
    if winrar says that the archive is either unknown or damaged
    but the person who gave me the file said
    the file is ok
    and the problem is with winrar,
    please tell me if i need any other software for doing that..
    or the file is not good
    as far as i think the archive is good and working
    help would be appreciated…..

    • julian on September 8th, 2010 at 3:33 pm #

      The best program for opening ISO files is “7-Zip File Menager”

  22. Pangala Nagendra Rao on January 30th, 2010 at 1:08 am #

    Thank you very much for such a simple solution

  23. jane on February 10th, 2010 at 6:06 am #

    when I open the ISO file with WinRar, a warning message is displayed saying that “The archieve is either an unknown format or damaged

    What shud I do?

    • Jason on February 15th, 2010 at 6:19 pm #

      could be that the something messed up with download and u could re-download

      check your settings and make sure ISO is checked also

  24. Aijaz Ahmed on February 15th, 2010 at 3:40 am #

    so many thanks, & so simple

  25. Name (required) on February 15th, 2010 at 11:26 am #

    You can use 7-zip to see inside iso files.
    You can also extract files from an iso using 7-zip.

    7-zip is a must for every computer.

    And it's free…

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