This page contains help with how to create a disc containing all the setup files and folders needed to install a software product. You must download the ISO Image file for the software and then use that file with another program to create a setup disc needed to install that software on your computer.

(NOTE: This example demonstrates creating a setup disc on DVD for Visual Studio 2008. The steps are basically the same for creating a CD or DVD for any software product).

You can check first to see if there is some type of software program already installed on your computer that might be used to create a setup disk. First locate the ISO file that you downloaded, right-click the file name, and point to the Open With... menu item to see if there are one or more programs that might be used.

In this example, you can see something called "Mount Files with Virtual CloneDrive" and "Roxio EasyCDCreator." Virtual CloneDrive is a program that can mount the file as if it were a disk by simply double-clicking the file, and which then loads and starts the setup program; You can install Visual Studio that way without creating a setup disk. EasyCDCreator is another program that can be used; That program will create a disk with all the setup folders and files, and then the disk is used to run the Visual Studio setup program. You can find out more about these and other programs on the ISO Image Files page.

The program demonstrated in these instructions also can be found on that same ISO Image Files page. From the main Home web page, you can find a link to ISO Images either in the menu under About Software Center, or in the group links near the center of the page.

Oh the ISO Image Files page, click the Create CD or DVD ... link or just scroll down futher on that page to find the program to download for creating a dick.

Find the CDBURN and DVDBURN Command Line Program. Click the link that says "download and unzip a Windows application" to download the program.

After you click that link, a File Download window opens where you should click the Save button to download and save the file to your computer. .

In the Save As window, you can use the Save in: list box to select a location on your computer to save the file or accept the default location, which might be something like My Documents.

After the download completes, you can simply click the Open Folder button to quickly find the file you just downloaded.

Once you find the file just downloaded, you will need to extract the application file and folders compressed inside that .zip file, which should create the application folder with all the files and other folders inside.

Open that new ISO CD-DVD Burn folder to find the program file, which should have the name iso2cdvd.exe. This is the Application we need to run to start the ISO to CD-DVD program.

When the program runs, you will first need to find and open the Visual Studio 2008 ISO file that you downloaed. Use either the File menu or Open... button to get to the Open dialog window.

Once again, use the Look in: box to find the folder on your computer that has the ISO image file. The dialog will show any file having the .iso or .img image file extension. If you cannot remember where you downloaded your image file, use the My Computer Search toolbar to search for any file ending with .iso (or .img, if necessary).

Once you find and open the correct image file, it's filename will be loaded into the application window. Next, select the Drive Letter for your disk burner. The program should check the file size and automatically select CD or DVD. If the file name includes "dvd" somewhere, and you select CD, then the program will fail since the CD disk format will not hold all the data typically written to a DVD disk. When ready, click the Create Disk button.

You should see a small prompt window telling you to insert a disk into your drive. Be sure to insert a blank formatted disk before clicking Ok. If the program fails at this point, format the disk first and try again. The program should work with any disk that is compatable with your DVD (or CD) disk burner. However, DVD-R (or CD-R) are the most compatible formats that can be read from any media drive.

After you click Ok, a command window will open with a message about preparing the media before writing begins. Once you see this window, all you can do is sit back and watch, and wait...

Soon after the media is prepared, the writing process will begin with an indicator showing the amount of progress that has completed. (You can ignore any warning about setting a timestamp if that message appears.)

When the writing process ends, the disk must be finalized to prepare it for use; This might take only a few minutes.

Once the disk has been finalized, there will be a brief Success message.

Before this window closes, the disk drive may eject the DVD tray and then load it again, automatically. The command window closes, and if you do not see an error message back in the ISO to CD-DVD application window, the disk should be ready to use. If you do nothing at this point, the Visual Studio 2008 setup program will load and begin to run, at which time you can go ahead and install that software onto your computer, or exit and install it later.