when you find the need to go beyond documentation.. IDentity EnAbled Services

I've always wanted to have the ability to extract a few files from an iso file for development. The approach I used to take to obtain the files was to download the .iso image of the distribution, and then use my CD Burner to burn a CD using the .iso image and then extract the file from that image. Well, a friend of mine just pointed me to this excellently cool utility. and hey !! It's Microsoft's own utility (though unsupported) and it's FREE !! and has a extremely small footprint (60kb). Here's the download link: WinXP Virtual CD Control Panel. Here's the readme:

Readme for Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel v2.0.1.1 THIS TOOL IS UNSUPPORT BY MICROSOFT PRODUCT SUPPORT SERVICES System Requirements =================== - Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional Installation instructions =========================

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.

I never thought I'd be publicly saying this. But here goes anyway: Thanks Microsoft. (It wouldnt hurt to be honest and thank someone, would it ?)