The ISO file is a true image of an optical disk like CD, DVD or BRD. It can be used to emulate the CD/DVD in your PC without actually loading any optical disk in your CD/DVD drive. You can also use it to create an exact replica of the original disk by burning it on a blank CD, DVD or BRD. Windows 8 has native support for the ISO image files. You can double-click on an ISO image file to mount it in Windows and use it like a regular optical disk drive. But sometimes when you install third party software like WinRAR or PowerISO, they associate themselves with the ISO extension files and you can no longer use Windows to open ISO files. If you want, then you can restore this ISO image file association back to Windows Explorer. Here is how :
- Right-click on any ISO image file and choose Open with → Choose default program as shown.
- A tiny window would appear floating on your screen. In this window, select the checkbox labeled Use this app for all .ISO files. Then click on Windows Explorer from the list of apps displayed.
- That’s it. Now you have successfully re-associated ISO file with Windows Explorer.
Following these steps, you should be able to restore the ISO image associations back to Windows Explorer ISO app. The settings change effect immediately and you can start using the Windows native ISO app to burn the ISO images to blank CD/DVD media or mount them in Windows Explorer.