How to open an InstallShield Data .cab file.

InstallShield logo Some program installations use InstallShield, and the program files are compressed into Data .cab files. But InstallShield decided to be cute, and use their own propriety format with older versions of the Data .cab file. They could have used a standard compression algorithm like .ZIP, but did not.

My guess is that they didn’t want people fiddling with the raw files.

That’s a bummer for those of us who need to get at the files, such as Application Packagers. I discussed this a little in the InstallShield Temp Directory Trick.

So it’s a good thing that CDMediaWorld has utilities, such as i6Comp to extract the files. Just download it (I picked i6comp02.zip) and then run i6comp. This is what i6Comp looks like when listing files from the data.cab file:

C:\temp\InstallShield>i6comp l -v -r data1.cab InstallShield 6.x Cabinet Util Version 0.2 -] fOSSiL & Morlac - 2000 [-

Date Time OrigSize Attr CompSize Ind FileName ========== ===== ========== ==== ========== ==== ================= 12-16-1999 10:24 28529 ____ 5841 0 corecomp.ini 09-05-2001 04:18 77824 A___ 29916 1 ctor.dll 09-05-2001 04:13 32768 A___ 4483 2 objectps.dll ... 08-22-2003 17:27 278190 A___ 264385 180 PowerDVD.CHM 09-05-2003 16:16 65536 A___ 30014 342 AudioFilter\clds.dll 09-05-2003 16:16 45056 A___ 8203 343 AudioFilter\clwo.dll 09-05-2003 16:16 245760 A___ 81241 344 AudioFilter\CLADR.ax 09-05-2003 16:16 126976 A___ 43046 347 AudioFilter\CLAuTS.ax 09-05-2003 16:25 73728 A___ 27800 348 AudioFilter\CLAudioCD.ax 09-05-2003 16:25 503808 A___ 239856 349 NavFilter\CLNAVX.ax 09-12-2003 18:38 520192 A___ 205346 350 VideoFilter\CLVSD.ax 09-05-2003 16:16 45568 A___ 23075 351 VideoFilter\CLLine21.ax ---------- ---------- ------------------- 49878589 19880422 311 file(s) total

C:\temp\InstallShield>

The list output is more interesting than the extract output. which is why I’ve showed list. Other options are:

C:\temp\InstallShield>i6comp InstallShield 6.x Cabinet Util Version 0.2 -] fOSSiL & Morlac - 2000 [-

Usage: i6comp <cmd> [-opts] <cab> [file index|fmask|path] [disk fmask|path] Commands l: list Files g: list File Groups c: list Components t: list Setup Types s: convert multi-volume cab to a single volume (not recommended) e: extract files (specify <cab index|mask> when specifying <disk path>) x: same as 'e' with subdirs r: replace files in cab (same syntax as 'e') d: delete files from cab (specify <cab index|mask>) a: add files to cab (<cab path> is optional; must specify -g OR -f) z: zero-size files (specify <cab index|mask>) Options v: verbose info mode r: extract subdirs/recurse and store subdirs d: include directories in cab matches g<name|index>: specifies File Group to work with o: suppress supplementary output (start msg, comments, etc.) f: treat File Groups as directories (usefull for GUI, wrappers)

C:\temp\InstallShield>

Update: this does not work with InstallShield 12 or later. I’ve written a post about that here.

How to open an InstallShield Data .cab file.

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