how to open and view the contents inside data.cab files .. [solved]

[vhelp]

success / resolved

now normaly, i use windows explorer to open/view the contents, but some files won't open. is there any small utility or command line utility that i can d/l and view them ?

i recieved a cd with latest software and i want to open and view it to see if it has an h264 .ax file in it.

windows xp home.
thank you.

[El Heggunte]

7-Zip and WinRAR can open most .CAB files.

As a last resort, there is the Universal Extractor:

http://legroom.net/software/uniextract

OT notice:
--- its UPX engine and its Inno Setup Unpacker are outdated, so you'll have to update them manually.

Originally posted by Wikipedia

The .cab filename extension is also used by other installer programs (e.g. InstallShield) for their own proprietary archiving formats. InstallShield uses zlib for compression (see Deflate), but their headers are not the same as for Microsoft CAB files so they are incompatible and cannot be manipulated or edited with the programs that are made for standard Cabinet format. Specialized third-party utilities, such as Unshield, can extract this specific proprietary format.

[vhelp]

thanks, i d/l 'ed and installed. but man, its very slow. i just want to view the contents but it seems it only extracts. almost 10 minutes and only 1/3 the way through. its slowwwwww

[El Heggunte]

How big are those files?

Also, are you sure there isn't any interfering process running in the background?

AFAIK, the only really-slow "module" of UniExtract is the MHT unpacker.

[vhelp]

success / resolved

yep, smsystemanalyzer.exe was running, takes 50% in addition to whats running. i 4got to disable that. oh well. anyway, the file was 166mb. i didn't realize that it recreates the folder structures. at least it works, and i found another .ax file to try. ty for helping.

ps: if you ever come across a command line version of a cab reader/viewer, let me know, since all i really want to do most of the time is search for a file.

[transporterfan]

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Compression-tools/Microsoft-Cabinet-Extraction-Tool.shtml

Not tried it but it might be useful to you.

[El Heggunte]

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Compression-tools/Microsoft-Cabinet-Extraction-Tool.shtml

Not tried it but it might be useful to you.

Not useful at all. The problematic .CAB files are not the standard ones, but the ones used by InstallShield.

Also, what the heck, a 0.98MB extract.msi wrapped in a compressed .EXE, and the only important part of the MSI package is a 90.2kB extract.exe ?

http://denisbider.blogspot.com.br/2009/06/windows-installer-sucks.html

[vhelp]

ok, so i'm cleaning some space off my hdd. and comming across this file, thought i'd ask one more sort of related question.

what utility can i d/l that will open these .msi files ?

when i d/l files i always label them but sometimes i'm rushing and forget. anyway. the original file was extract_setup.exe and when i 7z to open it, (i use it mainly to see contents of most files) it gave me this "extract.msi" file. i want to see the what files are inside to determine what it was i d/l'ed and if i need to delete the source file.

edit: i got it.. you 1 open in 7z -> 2 open inside -> 3 select cab files or other archive -> 4 open inside, ...

it works so far.

[El Heggunte]

Option 1)

UniExtract ( again )

Option 2)

Howto: extract files from a .msi file using the Windows command line

http://thebackroomtech.com/2007/08/23/howto-extract-files-from-a-msi-file-using-the-wi...-command-line/

Keep in mind that the file/folder names listed by 7-Zip not always match the actual file/folder names inside the archive