Boot an ISO Image Directly From VirtualBox
VirtualBox is a hugely popular free software to create and run virtual operating systems and it can run a virtual CD/DVD disc inside a virtual machine (VM) by using the computer’s real optical drive or an ISO image. This is ideal for booting and testing an ISO but there are a several steps to go through each time you want to boot a different image. Here we show you how to setup a virtual machine and be able to run ISO files with a few clicks.
1. If you don’t already have it, download and install VirtualBox . Note we have tried this method with Portable VirtualBox and it doesn’t work.
2. Run the program and click New to create a new machine, name it ISOBoot. You MUST use ISOBoot (including capitals) or you will have to manually edit things later on. For Type/Version use anything you like.
3. Allocate enough memory to allow the ISO images to boot, 512MB-1GB should be plenty. Choose “Do not add a virtual hard drive” and click Create
4. Now with the new VM selected click Storage on the right, click the Empty drive in the Storage Tree and change from IDE Secondary Master to IDE Primary Master in the CD/DVD Drive dropdown menu. Click OK and close VirtualBox.
5. The trick is to make VirtualBox load and boot an ISO image from the desktop without you having to launch the program first, go into Storage settings and manually browse for the file every time. Download the following file:
The batch file injects the selected ISO filename into the ISOBoot virtual machine and then automatically runs it which boots to the ISO image. You can either drop an ISO file onto the BAT icon or launch it as a command. To make things easier, copy the BAT file to:
C:\Programs Files\Oracle\VirtualBox
Then download the zip file below, open it and double click the Install file to import the data into your registry:Download ISOboot_VirtualBox_Context.zip
This creates a context menu entry so when you right click on an ISO file in Explorer a menu entry will allow you to click and run the ISO file inside VirtualBox automatically. Run Remove_ISOboot_VirtualBox.reg from the Zip to remove the context menu entry
When you have finished simply power off the VM. These files rely on VirtualBox being installed to the default locations, you will need to manually edit them if this isn’t the case. If you don’t see the right click entry it could be that another program has taken over the ISO file type in which case you will need to edit the registry file yourself. Have a look at the (Default) Data value in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.iso to see what has taken over from the default of “Windows.IsoFile” and adjust the registry file accordingly.
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