Description and Explanation of a Cabinet File

This article describes cabinet (.cab) files.

Cabinet files are compressed packages that contain a number of related files. The format of a cabinet file is optimized for maximum compression. Cabinet files on the Windows XP compact disc (CD) contains the actual Windows files.

You can extract individual files from the cabinet files to replace missing or corrupted files. To extract information from a .cab file in Windows XP:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type msconfig, and then click OK.
3. Click Expand File.
4. In the File to restore box, type the name of the file that you want to restore.
5. In the Restore from box, type the path to the Windows XP .cab file from which you want to restore the file, or click Browse From to locate the Windows XP .cab file.
   
   NOTE: The Windows XP .cab files are stored in the I386 folder on the Windows XP compact disc (CD).
6. In the Save file in box, type the path to which you want the new file extracted, or click Browse To to locate the folder that you want.
7. Click Expand.
8. In the System Configuration Utility dialog box, click OK. If you are prompted to restart the computer, click Restart.