An ISO file is what’s called a disc image - an exact copy of a CD or a DVD disc. ISO archives are typically created as disc backups, but they can also be made “from scratch” using a specialized editor like WinISO. An ISO archive can only store a single track of data, so it doesn’t work for music CDs and a few more arcane CD/DVD types.

It may help to think of the .iso archive like a kind of archive because it usually contains a number of files and folders. However, unlike general purpose archives (e.g. ZIP or RAR), the ISO archive saves everything in uncompressed form. Some proprietary disc archive formats like UIF files and .daa format also support compression, but they’re not as widespread as ISO.

To open an ISO file you will need to install one of the many ISO file tools. There’s a multitude of applications that can open the ISO images, but most of them are either very expensive or simply lack any defining traits that would let you make an informed choice. So which one should you pick? Depending on your goal, there are two applications that I would recommend.

First, if you only need to extract the file, take a look at 7-zip. It’s a free open-source archiver that can open ISO CD/DVD images. It will let you extract the CD/DVD image, but that’s it - 7-zip can’t record, mount or make new .iso archives. It’s a nice no-frills application and it works both on Windows and Unix-based computers.

If you want a bit more features you should probably install a fully-fetured ISO image software like PowerISO. Yes, it costs money, but it will let you do almost anything you want with an ISO or .uif files - open it, modify, load it in a virtual drive, convert to a different format, and burn to a physical disc. PowerISO only supports Windows, though.

To summarize, ISO is a widely known, open CD/DVD archive file that is supported by most DVD applications. Some general-purpose archivers can also extract .iso images, but they generally can’t do anything else with them.

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