Introduction
A fair number of We Got Served readers have Microsoft MSDN or TechNet accounts. Most of the downloads that come from these services are in an ISO format. The same can be said of much of the software you purchase as a download. Download in an ISO format; burn to disk; install.
There are a few (or more) ISO mounters, extractors, and writers in the wild. ISO Mounter is one such product that is WHS specific. The add-in has versions for both Windows Home Server v1 and Windows Home Server 2011. I will taking a look at the WHS 2011 version. Per the authors of ISO Mounter, the feature set for either version is identical.
Just so you do understand what ISO Mounter is supposed to do, electrongoo, the company behind the product explains it best:
ISO Mounter is a software add-in for Microsoft Home and Business server that allows you to mount ISO files (DVD and CD images) stored on your server so they can be viewed directly through your servers folder share on all of your PC’s and laptops.
This sounds like a great way to be able to view and install software directly off a WHS hard drive without the need for a physical DVD/CD media and associated optical drive. How well does it work? Read on.
Features
Before we get into the actual add-in, the complete feature set of ISO Mounter per the company website follows
- Supports Windows Home Server 2011
- Supports Windows Home Server (V1)
- Supports Windows Small Business 2011 Essentials and Storage Server 2008 R2
- Integrates directly into the Server Console/Dashboard for simple administration
- File system browser allows you to search and manually select any ISO file
- Mount any ISO file (CD or DVD image) directly on the servers file system
- Configurable “Auto-mount” folders to allow automatic mounting of new ISO files
- ISO files will appear directly in the Server folders as a browseable read-only folder
- Simple, easy-to-view heads-up status display to monitor status
- Quick-launch feature allows viewing contents of ISO files directly from the Dashboard
That appears to be quite a bit of functionality for a simple add-in! Right? Before checking out the actual add-in, however, we do need to install it.
