Windows 8 Center

Windows 8: Native ISO and VHD Mounting + Video

Posted: 30 Aug 2011 08:05 AM PDT

In a new “Building Windows 8″ blog entry, Microsoft elaborates on how Windows 8 will react to storage files like ISO and VHD. An ISO file is usually found on a CDROM – but those are rare these days and ISO files are mostly found online. So in Windows 8, ISO files will be automatically “mounted,” creating a virtual CDROM that will function just like a normal one.

VHD files are given very similar treatment. A VHD file is basically an “image” of the hard disk for use as a virtual disk all the same ways physical ones are. It is used commonly for Hyper-V to store information for Virtual Machines. To access a VHD file in Windows 8, click, find the new icon, use just as any other storage device, and eject.

Watch the video below for a walkthrough, and watch closely at 0:23-0:33 and at 2:23-2:38: is Microsoft teasing us again with a new taskbar and start screen?