Alcohol 120% 2.1.1

The version on this page, 2.1.1.2201, is a 12.3 MB shareware trial from developer Alcohol Soft.

The build was first released in December 2022 and has received no updates since a minor patch in January 2023 - which means no testing against Windows 11 22H2, 23H2 or 24H2, no security fixes, and no driver updates for over three years.

If you are weighing whether to install it on a modern PC, the rest of this page is the context you need.

What the trial does when it does work

When Alcohol 120% installs cleanly, the feature set is still the one that made it popular.

The trial unlocks up to 31 virtual CD, DVD and Blu-ray drives, mounts images in CCD, BIN, MDS, CUE, ISO, BWT, BWS, BWA, CDI and ISZ formats, and writes 1:1 backups of physical discs at native drive speeds.

The proprietary MDS/MDF format is its native habitat, and for archives of older PC game discs and software backups stored in that format there is still no other tool that handles them quite the same way.

The protection-bypass routines that historically made Alcohol 120% interesting for game preservation are intact for older copy-protection schemes; modern Blu-ray and current SecuROM titles are not supported and have not been for some time.

Where it can fail on modern Windows

The fragile part is the SPTD kernel driver (SCSI Pass Through Direct), which is what creates the virtual drives at the operating system level. SPTD requires admin privileges, a reboot during install, and a driver signature that pre-dates several tightening passes Microsoft has made to Windows kernel security.

On a Windows 11 install with default settings, the most common failure modes are: a clean install on 22H2 and 23H2 with Memory Integrity (HVCI) disabled generally works; the same install with Memory Integrity enabled can fail to load the virtual drives and may BSOD during the post-install reboot; on Windows 11 24H2, stricter driver enforcement makes successful installs noticeably less reliable.

If you do try the trial and the virtual drives never appear in This PC after the reboot, the SPTD driver is almost certainly the cause and there is no developer-supplied fix - the build has not been updated.

Modern alternatives that are actively maintained

If you mainly need the virtual drive side of Alcohol 120%, DAEMON Tools Lite is the closest functional equivalent and is still actively maintained, with current builds tested against Windows 11 24H2. It is freemium rather than fully free, but ISO, MDS, MDF, MDX, IMG, NRG and CCD mounting stay free permanently.

For a no-paid-tier option, Virtual CloneDrive is fully free and supports up to 15 virtual drives across ISO, IMG, BIN, UDF, CCD and DVD - it does not read MDS or MDF, which is the one gap to be aware of if your archive is Alcohol-native.

ImgDrive is the format-for-format closest free replacement: recent builds moved MDS v2.0, B5T/B6T/BWT, CDI, MDX, PDI and UIF mounting out of the paid tier and into the free build, which means it reads almost everything Alcohol 120% does.

If you specifically want to stay inside the Alcohol-family workflow without the paywall, Alcohol 52% is the same developer's free sibling - it ships with six virtual drives and native MDS support, but it is also unmaintained since 2023 and has the same SPTD driver issue.

Our Comprehensive Guide to Virtual Disc Mounting walks through the workflow end-to-end and is worth reading before you commit to any one of these.

Replacing the burning side

The burning half of Alcohol 120% stops working once the trial expires, and the free Burning Tools on this site cover the same ground without a license. ImgBurn is the long-running enthusiast favourite and is itself frozen since 2013, but its burn engine still handles modern drives correctly and this ImgBurn ISO to DVD guide covers the workflow most Alcohol 120% users will recognise. CDBurnerXP is the friendlier graphical option with broad CD-R, DVD±R, BD and HD-DVD support plus audio CD authoring.

BurnAware Free is the most actively maintained of the three and is the one to choose on Windows 11 24H2 where a current build matters. AnyBurn is the lightweight pick at roughly 1 MB installed. For users coming from Alcohol 120%'s image-editing side, UltraISO and PowerISO cover ISO creation, editing and conversion in ways Alcohol 120% never did particularly well.

Installation notes for anyone still proceeding

Two things have stayed true across releases and apply to the 2.1.1.2201 build.

First, the installer is bundled with an optional WeatherBug offer and other partner software prompts - choosing Custom Installation during setup and unticking each offer screen avoids all of it.

Second, do not confuse Alcohol 120% Retro Edition with the current build. The Retro Edition targets Windows 9x, ME and XP only and will misbehave on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Before installing the modern build on Windows 11, consider temporarily disabling Memory Integrity under Windows Security > Device Security > Core Isolation - if the install succeeds with it off but fails with it on, you have confirmed the SPTD compatibility issue and will need to leave Memory Integrity disabled for the virtual drives to work, which is a trade-off worth being clear-eyed about.

Who should still use Alcohol 120% in 2026

A narrowing audience. If you maintain an active archive of MDS/MDF disc images, run Windows 10 or an early Windows 11 build, and have an existing license, the software is still doing the job it was built for.

If you are a new user landing on this page in 2026, the honest recommendation is to start with one of the maintained alternatives above - DAEMON Tools Lite for the closest experience, Virtual CloneDrive for the cleanest free option, ImgDrive for the broadest free format support, and any of the four free burning tools for writing discs.

The trial on this page is still here for people who specifically need it; it is no longer the default answer.