Open/Extract CAB/Cabinet File with Freeware on Windows/Mac/Linux

CAB (or Cabinet) is an archive file format for Microsoft Windows that supports lossless data compression and embedded digital certificates used for maintaining archive integrity. Cabinet files have .cab file name extensions and are recognized by their first 4 bytes MSCF. Cabinet files were known originally as Diamond files.

CAB file is a compressed archive which supports DEFLATE , Quantum, and LZX compression. CAB files are used by windows installation engines such as Setup API, device installer and advpack.

CAB files typically contain drivers, system files and other Windows components. The installation engine extracts these files for use in the set up of various software and hardware.

For a number of years, Microsoft has used .cab files to compress software that was distributed on disks. Originally, these files were used to minimize the number of floppy disks shipped with a product. Today, .cab files are used to reduce the file size and the associated download time for Web content that is found on the Internet or on corporate intranet servers.

One file in the cabinet is typically an information (.inf) file, which provides further installation information. The .inf file may refer to files in the .cab as well as to files at other URLs.

Each file compressed in a .cab file is stored completely within a single folder. A .cab file may contain one or more folders or portions of a folder. So, even if a compressed file does not fit in one .cab file, it is placed in one folder that spans multiple .cab files. Such a series of .cab files form a set. Each .cab file contains name information for the logically adjacent .cab files.

A .cab file can be digitally signed like an ActiveX control. A digital signature provides accountability for software developers. The signature associates a software vendor’s name with a given file. A signature can be applied to a .cab file using Authenticode technology.

Open/Extract CAB/Cabinet File on Windows

You can use Windows built-in System Configuration Utility (msconfig.exe) to extract CAB/Cabinet file.

• Start -> Run
• Type: msconfig.exe
• Press Enter
• Click «Expand File. » at tab General
• Click «Browse From. » to choose CAB/Cabinet file
• Click «Browse To. » to choose folder to save the restored file
• Click «Expand»
• Done

Alternatively, You can install an all-in-one archive compression software. Easy 7-Zip opens/extracts CAB/Cabinet file easily on Windows. The Easy 7-Zip was developed based on 7-Zip. 7-Zip is a famous open source file archiver. The Easy 7-Zip is an easy-to-use version of 7-Zip. The open source freeware keeps all features of 7-Zip and adds a few useful features that makes the software more user-friendly.

Easy 7-Zip works on Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/2008/2003/XP/2000 (both 32-bit and 64-bit compatible).

1. Free Download Easy 7-Zip
2. Install Easy 7-Zip by step-by-step instructions
3. The installation will associate CAB with Easy 7-Zip automatically
4. Double-click on CAB file to open CAB/Cabinet file with Easy 7-Zip
   
   You will see files or folders within the CAB/Cabinet file then, click button Extract to extract the CAB/Cabinet file.

Alternatively, Right-click on CAB/Cabinet file on Windows Explorer

And then, choose Extract files. , Extract Here, or Extract to «folder\» to extract the CAB/Cabinet file.

Easy 7-Zip Download Links:

You can try other alternative freeware that opens/extracts CAB/Cabinet file on Windows. For example:

• PeaZip
• TUGZip
• B1 Free Archiver
• IZArc
• Universal Extractor
• Bandizip
• Bitser

Open/Extract CAB/Cabinet File on Mac

B1 Free Archiver opens/extracts CAB/Cabinet file on Mac. B1 Free Archiver is a free software for creating archive folder and extracting archive file. B1 Archiver works on all platforms — Windows, Linux, Mac and Android. The freeware supports most popular formats including CAB/Cabinet.

B1 Free Archiver is compatible with:

• Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks
• Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
• Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
• Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Alternative freeware that opens/extracts CAB/Cabinet file on Mac.

Open/Extract CAB/Cabinet File on Linux

You need to install cabextract. cabextract extracts files from Microsoft cabinet (.cab) archives or executable cabinet.

Install cabextract on CentOS and Fedora

$ wget http://www.cabextract.org.uk/cabextract-1.4.tar.gz $ tar -zxvf cabextract-1.4.tar.gz $ cd cabextract-1.4 $ ./configure $ make # make install

Install cabextract on Debian and Ubuntu

# apt-get install cabextract

To extract/unpack a CAB file, type:

$ cabextract file.cab

To extract CAB file to specified directory, type:

$ cabextract -d directory file.cab

• -v —version print version / list cabinet
• -h —help show this help page
• -l —list list contents of cabinet
• -t —test test cabinet integrity
• -q —quiet only print errors and warnings
• -L —lowercase make filenames lowercase
• -f —fix fix (some) corrupted cabinets
• -p —pipe pipe extracted files to stdout
• -s —single restrict search to cabs on the command line
• -F —filter extract only files that match the given pattern
• -d —directory extract all files to the given directory

Как установить CAB файл в Windows

Файлы, имеющие расширение .CAB (Windows Cabinet File) относятся к архивам и чаще всего используются в ОС Windows для установки различных системных файлов, драйверов, сетевых компонентов. Так как для сжатия данных в этом формате используются алгоритмы ZIP, Quantum, LZX, то чтобы открыть файл CAB достаточно использовать любую из программ-архиваторов, например, WinRAR или 7-Zip.

Далее рассмотрим возможные варианты установки файлов с расширением CAB на примере Windows 10.

Как установить CAB файл в Windows с помощью командной строки

• Запустить командную строку от имени администратора. Для этого кликните правой кнопкой мыши по значку «Пуск» → выберите соответствующий пункт (на скриншоте);
  
• В командной строке введите DISM /Online /Add-Package /PackagePath:” Путь к CAB файлу “;
  

В кавычках, вместо “ Путь к CAB файлу “, укажите текущее расположение целевого файла в проводнике Windows, например:”C:\Users\alpinefile\Desktop\windows10.0-kb4020102-x64_5ee8874a880b6976a1fdc935e969047822e1e5c6.cab”.

Установка CAB из диспетчера устройств Windows

В некоторых случаях, например при установке тех или иных драйверов из CAB-файлов, способ с командной строкой может оказаться не рабочим. Тогда можно поступить следующим образом:

• Распакуйте CAB файл с помощью архиватора (WinRar, PeaZIP, 7-ZIP или любого другого) в отдельную папку;
• Откройте диспетчер устройств (для этого можно использовать сочетание клавиш Win+R → devmgmt.msc → ОК);
• Выберите устройство для которого требуется обновление драйвера → клик правой кнопкой мыши → выберите «Обновить драйвер»;
  
• Нажмите «Выполнить поиск драйверов на этом компьютере»;
  
• С помощью кнопки «Обзор» найдите папку с ранее распакованным файлом CAB → Далее;
  

Установка драйверов завершена.

Cabinet Maker eating resources at startup but doing nothing?

Always when I boot up the computer, it takes a few minutes until I can really start doing anything because most of the resources, especially the hard drive is being used. I have HP Zbook 15 g3, so it should not be such a slow.

When I look Task Manager, there is always MS Cabinet Maker at the top of list using CPU. Notice that it is not just quickly appearing there but it stays there during the startup processing.

Earlier I have assumed that ok, so it needs to compress log files, which is normal, although very frustrating.

But now I started to investigate the log files, and I do not understand what the Cabinet Maker is doing actually:

In Windows/logs/CBS folder there are some compressed .cab files, but they have been generated quite rarely. And the most recent .cab file was modified a couple of weeks ago, but since that I have booted the computer many times, and ALWAYS the Cabiner Maker is eating the resources in the beginning.

I know there is a common bug with too big CbsPersist files, but this is not it: there are no log files over 1 G, and I checked also Windows/Temp and there are no excessive files.

Also in general the used space in hard drive seems normal, so nothing is filling it up constantly.

I searched the whole computer for cab files, but I found only a few and they were not made recently.

So, I just don’t get it: Why is Cabiner Maker eating resources so long every time during the startup, if it is not even compressing log files?

Windows cabinet file for sub directories

I’ve a java project which has set of libraries and xml files in separate directories. But when I see cabinet file which I created it has all the files in one place (with out sub directories though I can see files). Can I create a cabinet file which includes sub folders?

If it is not possible to include directories in cabinet file, once I release cabinet file to my end user for his installation then should I need to provide INF file to him along with cabinet file?

Can any one provide sample INF file for this problem?

What is the immediate step an end user will perform once he receive cabinet file? Will he open it with IE?

1 Answer 1

To answer your first question: Yes cabints do support directores. See this blog post for example. If you use makecab as tool you can create a directive file which controls which files are zipped and into which directories (may be different ones) they are extracted. Example:

With the following command I could create the cab file

makecab /d «CabinetName1=test.cab» /f files.txt

When I open the cab with 7-Zip I can see that the file 2.txt will go to TestDir1 and TestDir2 as expected. That said why do you bother with a cab file? I your application does not need an installer you could use a zip file with much less hassle.

But if you need to create some installer I would recommend to use the WIX toolkit where you «only» need to declare what gets installed to which location in an xml file. For more infos please consult the manual. The WIX toolkit also creates the cab files needed by msi for you.

You want to distribute a java application which may be largely OS independant but the installer, if you need one, is not. Please use for each target platform the preferred installation mechanism to ensure the least amount of problems to your customers.

Yes I know this advice sucks. But deployment is also an important development activity which always was (and I fear always will be) much more complex and error prone than one might initially hope.

What are cabinet files in windows

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Question

I’m looking for the .cab files:

I can download them online from some people’s site, but I’d rather find/extract them from my own media.

Can someone tell me where to find these files? Are they on the Server 2012 DVD?

Answers

Cabinet (or CAB ) is an archive file format for Microsoft Windows that supports lossless data compression and embedded digital certificates used for maintaining archive integrity. Cabinet files have .cab file name extensions and are recognized by their first 4 bytes MSCF . Cabinet files were known originally as Diamond files.

Cataleya Li
TechNet Community Support

All replies

There is no such thing as .cab files in the Windows 2012 installation media. You need to have enough knowledge to create these .cab files from the installation media source files using the makecab.exe utility.

You need to mount the install.wim using dism.exe /mount-wim command and then create some ddf files to direct makecab.exe which files and dirs to include in the cab making process. You need to know exactly which files to include and how to include them.

I suspect that you want to extract the deduplication feature from a windows 2012 installation media and add it to a windows 8 OS? If someone already has done all the job for you, extracting the cab files, it is easier to download them than re-inventing the weel.