Thanks terrencegf, I'm now experimenting with a prepakaged version of filedisk, which can be found in http://www.jeffothy.com/weblog/filedisk-iso-mounter/

Basically, I want to be able to open a file-encapsulated ext3 fs in the easiest way for a vanilla-style windows user. This will need some efforts for repackaging various tools and possibly for putting them together in a portable app.


EDIT: Diskinternals linux reader might be the solution.
http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/
Use the "mount image" command - will give read access to an ext3 image file . The mapdrive utility from the same vendor did not work in my hands.