“Mount with Daemon Tools” Shell extension
I recently discovered that the great program Daemon Tools (CD/DVD emulator for image files) now has a pay-for alternative (Pro) to the free version (Lite). I decided to check it out because I imagined it would have lots of great new features, I especially wanted a “mount with deamon tools” shell extension (for when you right-click on any file in explorer). This of course had been implented in the Pro version, but it did not work with the .img file format and in the forums the developers declared that they won’t be implenting it ever. So I decided to take on this problem myself. Also, I was gonna do it in the Lite version, since the Pro version didn’t seem to have any good features worth paying for (the only extra thing was an annoying GUI really).
Deamon Tools Lite (and Pro) have command line switches. These can be used to create scripts, .bat files, shortcuts, whatever you want. One of these switches is particularly interesting: -mount.
-mount
allows mounting images from command line (or shortcut).
Syntax is: -mount [n], [path]
where ‘n’ means DVD-ROM device number (’0′ - ‘3′ allowed) and ‘path’ is the full path to the image file.
Example: daemon.exe -mount 0,"c:\My Images\nameofimage.cue".
Do not forget to set the path in quotes if it contains spaces!
How to add a shell extension for an image file to mount with daemon tools:
In Explorer goto Tools -> Folder Options and select the File Types tab. Select the file type you want to enable this for (for example .img) and press Advanced. Press New. As Action type in:
Mount with Daemon Tools
and as Application type in:
"C:\Program Files\DAEMON Tools Lite\daemon.exe" -mount 0, "%1"
That is, if that’s where your daemon tools installation is located. If you installed to another directory, you need to adjust the above line to fit your installation. When done editing, press OK three times to get out of the menus.
Now there’s just one last step before you’re done. Right-click on your Daemon Tools tray icon and goto Options and disable Secure mode. This will disable Daemon Tools asking you if “it’s ok to mount?” each time you try to mount an image file.
That’s it! Now you should be able to right-click on any .img file and select “Mount with Daemon Tools”. I suggest you also add this Action to the following file types: .cue, .iso, .nrg, .mds, since those are fairly common.
Update: A helpful commenter, Dmitry, put this together in a .reg file for the lazy admins out there who don’t want to do this manually. 
Reader Comments
Hi, I tried your fix, however I received the following error:
Error in command line, and unable to mount image. I tried it for .iso
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks mate, that worked great!
Just to note, change the curly quotes to standard ” ” and you are good to go (you need them for the Application Type, but NOT for the Action
Thanks for the info, but I have a problem when mounting the .img file I get 2 errors the first is ‘error in command line’
after clicking ok to this the mount process seems to start then I get the error
‘Unable to mount image. Unable to access image file’
although I can mount the image in Daemon tools the usual way. Any suggestions?
Thanks Paul
I just google how to mount image with shell and found here.
Thanks a lot.
How would you make a shell integration with Vista?
Mazza: I didn’t notice that, Thanks! (It has now been fixed in the post)
nka & Cookie: The reason is probably what Mazza has already pointed out. I made a mistake in the writing of this post, sorry!
dinx: I have no idea, I’m still using XP
Thanks for the mini-guide! I’m currently an admin for a small office. We have a large collection of disc image files of all the software we use on a daily basis + backups of hard drives and such. It really was a pain having to go through DT to mount an image, and going through the manual labour of the guide is a bit too much. So after poking around the registry a bit I came up with this:
http://rapidshare.com/files/148017970/Assign_filetypes_to_DAEMON_Tools.zip.html
It’s a simple registry key file that, with a double click, will add the “Mount with Daemon Tools” for all extensions Daemon Tools is capable of handling. Hope it helps other lazy admins out there!
By the way, the key assumes you have the tools installed at C:\Program Files\DAEMON Tools\. If you have it installed elsewhere simply make an edit to the keyfile and off you go.
Great idea Dmitry!
I’ll mirror it here in case the rapidshare link goes down:
http://krof.net/blog/wp-content/Assign_filetypes_to_DAEMON_Tools.zip
(I opened it up and it looks good, I haven’t tried it myself though).
Kick ass! I’ve already used the reg file on most machines in the office and it works just fine. I have the older “non-Lite” Daemon Tools installed everywhere.
OK, need help with this for vista, how do I add attributes? -mount 0, “%1″. I don’t know how to do that part in VISTA.
The reg file that Dmitry and Krof posted does not work for me, at least not in Vista.
rolf mao: The registry files in Vista most likely use a different syntax - or maybe it’s just that the location of the settings we wanna change here have changed.
I don’t run vista myself, so I have no way of altering the .reg file for Vista. Maybe someone else out there knows how to do this stuff for Vista.
To get it working on Vista, I had to go to control panel->Programs->make a file type always open in a specific program
Set the .iso (or whatever format) to Daemon Tools
Then open the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and go to HKEY\CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\daemon.exe\shell\open\command and modify the value of default to include the mount -0, as specific in the post
Worked like a charm for me.
i got the command line problam and i didnt so understand what u sad plz tell me more
im not a hacker to getwhat u sad
Dan: If you didn’t understand by the explanation I have given then perhaps you shouldn’t try this, it’s for sort of adept computer users.
But you could try using the registry file Dmitry provided instead.
I found this usefull. Also, you can create a shortcut in your “Send To” folder (C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\SendTo”. The shortcut should point to:
“C:\Program Files\DAEMON Tools\daemon.exe” -mount 0,
Then u just Send any file to daemon to try and mount it.
Cheers!
You can also add a command to unmount all drives:
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\Unmount]
@=”Unmount All”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\Unmount\Command]
@=”\”C:\\Program Files\\DAEMON Tools Lite\\daemon.exe\” -unmount_all”
Does anybody know, how to add the shell extension to a single drive with a specific Drive letter only?
(e.g. V:\ for “virtual drive”)
Thanks man! Great tip! I can’t understand why they don’t add .img files as a standard file type since it obviously has no problem mounting them?
Works great anyway!
works like a charm…
for vista and windows 7, 64bit use:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\DAEMON Tools Lite\DTLite.exe” -mount 0, “%1″
thanks a lot TOU