I'm not use any ISO mounter, but for other tasks, i'm use the next free applications:

- Comodo Internet Security.
- Free Commander
- 7zip
- OpenOffice
- SumtaraPDF
- CCleaner
- Autoruns
- Speccy
- nGlide
- GIMP
- Paint.net
- Notepad2
- Audacity

Personally, as Wordpad is quite enough for my text editing needs and I have no need for a presentation application, I just install Gnumeric for spreadsheets.

If I were to install a full office suite, I'd likely use LibreOffice, not OpenOffice.

HaoZip

windows 8 and i use WinCDEmu (opensource)

Installed it today and it installs BS software without giving you an option not to install it :P

Windows 8 can mount ISO files directly, can't it? (Which means You'd still need third-party software for bin/cue, mds/mdf pairs and other formats.)

I was an early supporter of Daemon Tools, bought it in beta and enjoyed it for a little while, then they decided that my "lifetime license" was only a "5-year" license. That and the major activation pain it was to install every update made me give it up.

I switched to Alcohol 52%... though I rarely have to use it these days.

something like that, but i use mostly 7zip if it works for files under 3-4 GB

It does. You have to uncheck everythin on the first screen, untick that you agree on the next one, and click on "decline" at the last one...

but it's still annoying. Seriously, it's better to pirate Alcohol 120% than to fight with this crap.

For my daily needs i have these freeware programs installed:

Audacity
Auslogics disk defrag
Ccleaner
Comodo internet security premium - A good free Firewall / Antivirus package.
Imgburn
Macrium Reflect free edition - Backup, manage and restore partitions, much like Acronis and Norton Ghost.
Malwarebytes Anti malware
Minitool partition wizard home - Great partition utility not unlike Partition magic.
Mozbackup - Backup and restore settings, mails, bookmarks and passwords from Thunderbird and Firefox.
Spywareblaster
Syncback - Synchronize, move or backup folders or drives locally or via network.
Windirstat - Show folders and files in a graphical representation to see what takes up most space.
Virtual Clonedrive

Uh no, just use 52%. Does anyone here have a need to reburn their images? Maybe if you lost or damaged the disc, but why would you want to go back to a disc when you have an image?

First, just as I've said - it's better to pirate alc120 because you don't need to be careful while installing it. It doesn't have all that malware crap the free version has.

Second, alcohol 120 can burn data as well, not only image files.

I was only referring to the fact almost every free software today comes with a crapload of malware packaged with it. And with Alc52 it's not that obvious how to NOT install them.

Suggesting pirating a sofware there isn't clever (even if i understand the reason). You do what you want , but going on those websites to get an illegal version ; you expose your computer to some security risks aswell.

Second, you suppose almost all free software comes with malware , well a lot yes, almost no. I think you didn't search enough. I know it's really a plague. But i have found alternative sofrwares without those crappy third party.

I generally prefer running from images but I'm planning to burn some discs for my old pentium 100 DOS gaming box and some uncooperative PS2 games (won't work with Open PS2 Loader). Up to this point I've been running the original media but I'd much rather store them on the shelf.

It's weird, I actually hate discs but want to take care of the ones I have for some reason. *shrugs*