Daemontools is a tiny, 100% free Windows application that installs in an instant and does some
pretty remarkable stuff! This is a program I wish I had known about years ago - it would
have saved me burning a lot of image files to CD that, as it turns out, I would have never burned if
I'd have first seen the program or game. NOTE: DOWNLOADS are available at the bottom of this page.
What the heck does it do......exactly?
Once installed, daemontools......
- Places a little red icon on your Windows taskbar (to open the program)....
- By default, creates one "virtual", or fake, CD drive on your PC.....
- Allows you to "mount" any form of image file as if it were already a burned CD, placed in your virtual (phony) CD drive!
Okay, what's a "virtual drive" - and what do you mean by "mounting" an image file?
I'm not very technically inclined and, when I first heard some of these terms, it all sounded
highly technical to 'ol Guy - as it turns out, it's actually very simple. A "virtual CD drive" is, basically,
a fake CD drive on your computer. For instance, after daemontools is installed you can go to "My Computer"
on your Windows box and you'll notice an icon for a brand new CD drive; it's as if you've installed a
new piece of hardware. But this handy-dandy, fake CD drive has a very unique property. You can use it
in conjunction with Daemontools to install an app or game directly from an image file, thereby
bypassing the need to burn an image file to CD for testing, etc. Opening an image file in your
new, fake CD drive is called "mounting" the image. By the way, by default daemontools installs
one virtual (or phoney-baloney) CD drive.
You have the option of creating as many as four virtual drives.
It's very self-explanatory, but here some pics any-hoo...........
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Right click the daemontools icon on your taskbar. The menu, at right, will pop up.
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Highlight "Virtual CD/DVD-ROM"
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Highlight "Device 0", then "Mount image"....A Windows browser interface
will pop up; browse your PC and select an image file.........that's it! |
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Downloads
Here are a variety of releases for download; generally, they are quite similar. However, the latest release (4.08)
is bundled with spyware which will not be installed if you untick the "DAEMON tools search bar"
option during installation (see graphic below).
IMPORTANT: I've crashed Vista trying to install anything but Daemontools 4.08. If you're using Vista,
obviously, download the third one, here (ver 4.08). On earlier verions of Windows they all seem to work fine -
the versions are marginally different and all function similarly....
Download Daemontools.326.zip
Download Daemontools.344.zip
AGAIN: If downloading the most current release (below) you should untick the "DAEMON tools search bar" option
during the installation (see graphic). This is spyware.
Download Daemontools_4.08.zip
