VirtualBox
VirtualBox - it is a virtual machine, free analog of VMware Workstation and Microsoft Virtual PC.
It is used to create a virtual computer on the host system and execute guest operating systems in its environment, such as Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, Solaris/OpenSolaris, ReactOS, DOS, etc.
The following computer devices are emulated:
- Input devices: standard PS/2 keyboard and mouse, capture of host devices takes place, it is possible to connect separate devices via USB-adapter, because additionally, virtual USB 1.x and 2.0 are supported.
- Disk drives: IDE, SATA, SCSI.
- Network devices: up to 6 types of virtual network cards, the virtual machine can capture a physical network device on the host machine, or bind its network connection to the virtual adapter on the host system (loopback adapter, for example).
- Audio and video devices.
Some features of VirtualBox:
- The program has built-in support for RDP - Remote Desktop Protocol, you can interact through a remote desktop with virtual machines.
- It works with virtual hard disks VMDK (VMware) and VHD (Microsoft Virtual PC).
- The state of the guest operating system can be saved by creating snapshots and, if necessary, rolling back the state to either of them.
- To simplify the exchange of files between the host and guest systems, it is possible to assign public folders, even if there are no network settings.
- A convenient feature is the integration of the desktop into a host operating system, that allows you to simultaneously work in the guest and host OS, easily switching from one to the other.
Download VirtualBox: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
Gizmo Central
Gizmo Central is a free program for emulating equipment, analog DAEMON Tools, but it surpasses it in functionality.
It emulates hard disks, CD/DVD drives, it allows you to create ISO images from both drives and the file system, it can read various image formats - ISO, BIN, CUE, NRG, CCD, MDS, MDF. Also it writes images and files to disks.
The program consists of several components that can be installed selectively:
- Gizmo Drive is an utility for creating virtual optical drives, virtual hard disks and RAM disks.
- Gizmo Script is a scripting utility for Windows Shell, it uses its own scripting language.
- Gizmo Database is an analyzer of SQL queries to databases and stored procedures.
- Gizmo Editor - a text editor and a hex editor with syntax highlighting.
- Gizmo Hasher - it calculates hash values for files, folders and drives.
This software can be considered as a system utility due to its functionality.
Gizmo Central features:
- It creates virtual optical drives, virtual hard disks and RAM disks (virtual disks stored in the computer's RAM, which provides quick access to data, increasing productivity).
- It can create ISO images from optical drives, and from the file system.
- Program can mount images ISO, BIN, CUE, NRG, CCD, MDS, MDF.
- It allows you to record images and files to a physical disk.
- It works with virtual hard disks created in Microsoft VirtualPC (with the VHD extension).
- Data encryption and password protection are supported.
- It is possible to create custom toolbars on the desktop.
- We can write scripts to automate the system.
- Gizmo Central allows to connect as a client to databases using OLE DB or ODBC, to analyze SQL queries and stored procedures.
- We can edit a source code with a text and hex editor.
- Program can perform calculation and comparison of hash-values for files, folders and disks.
Download Gizmo Central: http://loganmueller.info/gizmo/download.html
WinCDEmu
WinCDEmu is a free open source software that allows you to mount CD and DVD images by clicking on a file in Windows Explorer.
WinCDEmu features:
- The number of simultaneously created virtual CD or DVD drives and images mounted on them is limited only to free letters for disks in the system.
- The letter for the virtual drive is selected manually or automatically.
- Supported image formats are ISO, CUE, NRG, MDS, MDF, CCD, IMG.
- There is a portable version of the program.
- The program interface is multi-language.
- Application supports all versions of Windows from Win XP to Windows 10 (incl. x64).
Download WinCDEmu: http://wincdemu.sysprogs.org/download
DVDFab Virtual Drive
DVDFab Virtual Drive - a free program for emulating CD, DVD and Blu-ray drives, it works with images of the format nrg, ccd, bin, dvd, img, iso, udf.
Features of DVDFab Virtual Drive:
- It works under Windows.
- It has simple settings, and allows you to create up to 18 virtual drives in the system.
- There is an ability to automatically mount the last used virtual disk image.
- The program interface supports about 20 different languages.
- There is an ability to automatically start the program when the operating system starts.
Program description and link to download DVDFab Virtual Drive: https://www.dvdfab.cn/virtual-drive.htm
