CD/DVD emulators are programs that allow you to run games, encyclopedias, DVDs etc without having the physical CD or DVD loaded in your CD drive. They work by creating virtual CD/DVD drives on your hard disks. You can then run an image file of the application directly from the virtual drive.
It’s a nice idea offering not only convenience but often much better performance, but there’s a problem: copy protection. Many software vendors simply don’t want you to be able run their products without the physical CD/DVD because they fear this will lead to their products being pirated.
However, copy protection hasn’t stopped developers from writing CD/DVD emulators that bypass or overcome the copy protection.
They do this with varying degrees of success. There are many forms of copy protection and no CD/DVD emulator that I’m aware of can handle all of them.
This means that in practice you may have to try several emulators to find one that works with a particular CD or DVD, though it’s also possible that none will.
Thankfully though, most CDs and DVDs can be played by many emulators so you are only going to strike this problem occasionally.
The best known freeware emulator is the whimsically named "Alcohol" [1]. It comes in two strengths; 52% which is freeware and a 120% version that is shareware. Many gamers swear by it but I’ve had CDs that have stumped it.
Another option is MagicDisc [2], [3]. It’s a freeware program that handles over a dozen different image file formats. Unfortunately, it can’t create ISO images, one of the most widely used of all disk image formats. For that you need MagicDisc’s commercial sibling called Magic ISO Maker or a freeware tool such as ISO Recorder [4].
Daemon tools [5] produce a capable free emulator but I’m reluctant to recommend it because of the adware that is included. Yes, you can uninstall the adware from Windows Control Panel, but I just don’t like this model for distributing software.
So overall there is no perfect freeware solution. If I had to choose one I’d probably choose two ;>) I’d use both Alcohol 52% and MagicDisc. Between them they pretty well cover all your disk emulation needs.
[1] http://trial.alcohol-soft.com/en/alcohol_info.php Freeware, Windows NT-XP, 6.7MB
[2] http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm Windows 98-Vista, 1.24MB
[3] http://www.download.com/3000-7970_4-10723083.html <= MagicDisc download
[4] http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm Freeware, Windows XP-Vista, 360KB
[5] http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php?mode=ViewCategory&catid=5 Adware, Windows 2000-Vista, 3.4MB
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