DAEMON Tools (short for Disk And Execution MONitor tools) is a virtual drive and optical disc authoring program for Microsoft Windows.
Overview
DAEMON tools was originally a successor of Generic SafeDisc emulator and incorporated all of its features.The program claims to be able to defeat most copy protection schemes such as SafeDisc and SecuROM.It is currently compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. DAEMON Tools has a special mode for proper operation of copies of discs with advanced protection (SafeDisc, SecuRom and LaserLock, CDCOPS, StarForce and Protect CD), which are used on some discs with games.
File Format
The default file format of DAEMON Tools is Media Data eXtended (MDX). MDX is a disc image file format similar to MDS/MDF images. It supports all of MDS/MDF format features except that all data is in one monolithic file only. The files of these types bear the filename extension of .mdx.MDX file contains metadata of original media - specifically the main physical parameters of disc, such as layer breaks, sessions, tracks and other. It could be described as being an archive file containing all data from a CD/DVD. It also supports data compression. MDX file includes the magic number "MEDIA DESCRIPTOR" at the beginning of the file.
Controversy
On 13 February 2012, one of DAEMON Tools components known as MountSpace became a subject of privacy concerns. MountSpace, a service-oriented component gathers and sends information about disc images used in DAEMON Tools to mountspace.com along with users' IP addresses. Although MountSpace can be disabled during installation, it is criticized for transmitting information despite being disabled and lacking a privacy policy at the time.The initial discovery of the concerning issue is attributed to one Rafael Rivera of Within Windows blog.As of 20 February 2012, MountSpace service has a privacy policy.
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