I was just looking for a good, simple, free application to mount ISO images on my new laptop and found something pretty interesting. Though not supported, Microsoft has a utility called "Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel" which can be downloaded on Microsoft's site.

It's not quite as user friendly for the less technically inclined as Alcohol or Daemon Tools, but it's fast, free, and very simple. The installation instructions from their ReadME is below, if you're curious.

So if you're looking for a quick, trustworthy way to mount and unmount ISO, UDF, CDFS, JO, or ROCK images, you can give this puppy a shot.

1. Copy VCdRom.sys to your %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder.
2. Execute VCdControlTool.exe
3. Click "Driver control"
4. If the "Install Driver" button is available, click it. Navigate to the %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder, select VCdRom.sys, and click Open.
5. Click "Start"
6. Click OK
7. Click "Add Drive" to add a drive to the drive list. Ensure that the drive added is not a local drive. If it is, continue to click "Add Drive" until an unused drive letter is available.
8. Select an unused drive letter from the drive list and click "Mount".
9. Navigate to the image file, select it, and click "OK". UNC naming conventions should not be used, however mapped network drives should be OK.

You may now use the drive letter as if it were a local CD-ROM device. When you are finished you may unmount, stop, and remove the driver from memory using the driver control.