So many operating systems are now available for download from their respective websites. All the Linux distributions have been available for download as ISO images of the CDs or DVDs for many decades. And for almost a decade now, Microsoft has also made Windows ISO images available for download. You can download these ISO images, burn them to a blank CD or DVD and use them to install operating systems on your computer.
But before you burn the ISO, if you want to see the contents of the ISO image then you have to mount it in Windows. Mounting is the process of loading the ISO image in the virtual optical drive so that you can access it just like a real CD/DVD/Bluray from File Explorer. Windows 10 already offers you to mount the ISO files. But if you want to mount other lesser known formats too then you can use the free and portable WinCDEmu.
WinCDEmu is a portable tool that you can use to mount various CD/DVD/Bluray image files in Windows. It supports ISO, NRG, CUE, MDS, MDF, CCD, and IMG images. When you launch it for the very first time, it asks you to install a driver in Windows without which it fails to work. It also informs you that this driver can later be uninstalled if desired.
In the portable WinCDEmu window, you can click on the Mount image button, select the ISO image file (or any other type of supported image file) and it will be quickly loaded in File Explorer. You can load as many ISO images as the system allows (there are only so many drive letters available). You can use the Replace image button to load another ISO image in the same drive letter. You can unmount individual images or all of the images and when you are done using WinCDEmu, you can uninstall the driver too.
Portable WinCDEmu is a very useful software for Windows users as they can now mount any of the popular CD/DVD/Bluray images such as ISO images without having to install the software in PC. It does require a driver to be installed but it can be removed from WinCDEmu interface itself.
You can download Portable WinCDEmu from http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/portable/.