Feature Request: Create ISO images / Context menu support (see details)

[LinguaOccultus]

Hello,

while they are all around, tools or creating ISO images are only a few, mostly very outdated and/or bad ones; like ages old optical media imaging tools. Therefore I use Daemon Tools Ultra, which is the only tool known to me which makes a good job and is a modern approach. Unfortunately, it is not updated for years now and making more and more problems like freezing the Windows Explorer (Windows 11 Pro 24H2) when mounting/unmounting sometimes (can be caused by the Explorer aswell, I don't know).

Even Windows itself now supports mounting ISO files but offers no (good) way to create them; so, they won't go anywhere any time soon, right?

Looking for an alternative and since 7-Zip/NanaZip already broadly supports ISO files, I thought why this is not a full-scale feature for creating them also; just like the compressed file types. Why not support ISO images using the context menus create archive? All the basics are already there, it just needs this file type added (or maybe even an optional additional entry in the menu due to the differences betwenn both file types and not having to switch around in the create archive menu all the time).

This also would make NanaZip much more useful in one more aspect and I find it complements its use case and functionality and – to my limited understanding – seems not to being all to much effort to add; especially since the general support for the file type already is there.

Speaking of the context menu: this would still be a most wanted addition being able to create archives using drag and drop from one location to another as 7-Zip can (or could) do. =)

Finally, I have documented the steps in Daemon Tools Ultra and how its working there, which is already quite close to how we create archives in NanaZip (see screenshots below):

• Right-click a/some file(s)/folder(s) to open context menu (in DTUs case, you still have to switch to the »old« context menu if you have the modern one enabled)

• Select the »Create ISO image ...« entry

• The wizard for that task appears (quite similar to what we see when using this way to create archives in NanaZip); here mainly for chosing/modifying the contents (done by selection before opening the wizard which is most convenient), give the ISO a name and an image size (not needed anymore; just for optical media)

• Just one more step for the target path and some additional settings (mostly unneccessary/deprecated/not applicable)

Both steps could be easily and nicely combined into just one screen like the create archives one as there is much free space and many unneeded options.

Screenshots:

Best regards,

Tim

[WhitespaceQ]

Have you tried WinCDEmu? I don't remember the last time I used Daemon Tools, they're such a bloatware nowadays. It's among the fastest/friction-less ISO mounting/creation that I have tried. They can also create an ISO through context menu with only single prompt.

In respect to NanaZip, I believe the developer should stick to compression utility. Optical disk image creation is a huge endeavor, you have to adhere to ISO 9660 and ISO/IEC 13346 spec and its not a trivial task.

[LinguaOccultus]

Have you tried WinCDEmu? I don't remember the last time I used Daemon Tools, they're such a bloatware nowadays. It's among the fastest/friction-less ISO mounting/creation that I have tried. They can also create an ISO through context menu with only single prompt.

In respect to NanaZip, I believe the developer should stick to compression utility. Optical disk image creation is a huge endeavor, you have to adhere to ISO 9660 and ISO/IEC 13346 spec and its not a trivial task.

As I wrote above, I have looked through and tried barely all of the few remaining tools and they all are no good solution. Wether they are extremely outdated, have a bad UI/UX, etc. See for yourself.

The idea to add it to a compression utility which already supports the file format is not taken from too far away. Of course, I do not know the exact effort needed here but this is why I am just making suggestions and leave the decisions to the developer(s). And since @MouriNaruto has marked this thread as suggestion/enhancement instead of closing it seems to me like the idea has potential ... Maybe ISO is not ISO depending on what you are trying to achieve. If I remember correctly, the ISOs came out of the optical media area and I do not know if all those really is needed still. When I create ISOs using Daemon Tools (which still is by far the best tool for this in any aspect), I use the more modern UDF as file system anyway; so, if we are talking about the same thing here, the older might be just deprecated and can be skipped today ...

I also like the idea of multi-purpose tools instead of single ones for one task each. And since NanaZip is going different and additional paths compared to 7-Zip, why not adding to that intention? Just because it started as a compression tool fork does not necessarily mean it has to stay one ... and when I look into others tools like this, they all are adding different stuff to their approach. I mean, what for do we need 10 tools which do exactly the same thing?

And I am not really suggesting to make NanaZip draw pink elephants using AI here, right? ;-) But I am open to different opinions, of course.