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Cabinet File Structure

The file structure introduced in Windows 95 has changed slightly in Windows 98. In Windows 95, most of the files were contained in a Win95#.cab structure. The rest of the files were included in the Base#.cab, Catalog.cab, Driver#.cab, Mini.cab, and Precopy#.cab cabinets.

Windows 98 instead groups CAB files by function. The following table summarizes the cabinet files and their contents.

Cabinet file Quantity Contents
Base#.cab 2 Files necessary for the first boot.
Catalog3.cab 1 Catalog files necessary for driver certification.
Chl99.cab 1 Offline channel Web pages for the Channel bar.
Driver#.cab 11 Windows 98 drivers. These files are copied to your hard drive only if you need them on first boot. This is the case when the device you are using for the installation media is connected to a sound card.
Edb.cab 1 Various utilities.
Mini.cab 1 Mini Windows, which is used for setting up from MS-DOS.
Net#.cab 5 Network driver-related files. These CAB files are optional and are copied to the hard drive only if you are installing over the network.
Precopy#.cab 2 Setup and INF files.
Win98#.cab 44 Windows 98 files.

The # in the file names uses the following naming convention:

Organizing the CAB files in this manner allows for easier extraction and a smoother setup. For example, if the computer does not have a network card, the Net#.cab files are not moved to the user's computer during setup.

Viewing and Extracting Cabinet Files Using Explorer

In Windows 98, you can view and extract CAB files using Windows Explorer. In Windows 95, you had to use the command-line Extract program to extract CAB files.

To view the contents of a CAB file with Windows Explorer

  1. Click the Start button, point to Programs, and then click Windows Explorer.
  2. In the left pane, click the letter that represents the drive where the CAB files are located.
  3. Navigate to the folder containing the CAB file you want to view.
  4. On the right pane, double-click the CAB file you want to view.

    The contents of the CAB file appear in a separate window.

To extract CAB files with Windows Explorer

  1. Follow the instructions for viewing the contents of a CAB file.
  2. In the window displaying the contents of the CAB file, double-click the file you want to extract.

    The Browse for Folder dialog box appears.

  3. Click a folder in which to save the file you are extracting, and then click OK.

You can also extract files by using System File Checker, as described in Chapter 27, "General Troubleshooting." With System File Checker, you do not need to know which CAB file contains the file you need.

Extracting CAB Files Using the Extract Program

The Extract program supports command-line extraction of files from the CAB storage format on disk. Extract does not support any other compression system (that is, it is not backward-compatible with any previous Microsoft disk utilities).

The Extract program (Extract.exe) can be found in the \Windows\Command directory or on the Windows 98 installation media.

Important

In general, use the Extract program only if your product support representative indicates that using the Extract program is necessary to retrieve a compressed file from the Windows 98 cabinet files.

Under normal circumstances, you should use the Add/Remove Programs or Network icon in Control Panel to install and uninstall components, applications, and support software from the Windows 98 installation media.

If system files are missing or damaged, run Windows 98 Setup from the Windows 98 installation media, and choose the option to validate and restore files.

Syntax

extract [/y] [/A] [/D | /E] [/L location] cabinet_file [file_specification ...]

– Or –

extract [/y] compressed_file [destination_file]

– Or –

extract [/y] /C compressed_file destination_file

Parameters

/A
Process all files in a cabinet set, starting with the cabinet_file. Follow cabinet chain.
/C
Copy source file to destination (to copy from DMF disks).
/D
Display cabinet directory. Do not extract.
/E
Use instead of *.* to extract all files.
/L location
Use the directory specified by location, instead of the current directory, as the default location to place extracted files.
/Y
Overwrite files in the destination without prompting. The default is to prompt the user if the destination file already exists, and to allow one of the following:
compressed_file
This is a CAB file that contains a single file (for example, File1.ex_, which contains File1.exe). If destination_file is not specified, the file is extracted and given its original name in the current directory.
destination_file
This can be either a relative path (.:, .., C:File1, and so on) or a fully qualified path. It can specify either a file (or files, if wildcards are included) or a directory. If a directory is specified, the file name stored in the cabinet is used. Otherwise, destination_file is used as the complete file name for the extracted file.
cabinet_file
This is a CAB file that contains two or more files. If no file_specification parameter is specified, a list is displayed of the files in the cabinet. If one or more file_specification parameters are specified, then these are used to select the files to be extracted from the cabinet. Wildcards are allowed to specify multiple cabinets.
file_specification
This specifies files to be extracted from the cabinets. This can contain the ? and * wildcards. Multiple file_specification values can be supplied.

The following table provides some examples.

Command Behavior
extract filename.ex_ Assuming filename.ex_ contains just the single file Filename.exe, filename.exe is extracted and placed in the current directory.
extract filename.ex_ file2.exe Assuming filename.ex_ contains just the single file filename.exe, filename.exe is extracted and placed in the current directory in the file file2.exe.
extract cabinet.1 Assuming cabinet.1 contains multiple files, a list of the files stored in that cabinet is displayed.
extract cabinet.1 *.exe Extracts all EXE files from cabinet.1 and places them in the current directory.

For more information about the Extract program, see Knowledge Base article Q129605, "How to Extract Original Compressed Windows Files."