This tutorial will show you how to extract all files from a CAB file into a folder of your choice in Windows 10 and Windows 11.
A cabinet is a single file, usually with a .cab extension, that stores compressed files in a file library. The cabinet format is an efficient way to package multiple files because compression is performed across file boundaries, which significantly improves the compression ratio.
Sometimes you will need to extract all files from a CAB file to install a driver (inf) from the CAB for example.
Contents
- Option One: Extract CAB File in File Explorer
- Option Two: Extract CAB File using Expand command
1 Open File Explorer (Win+E).
2 Navigate to and single/double click/tap on the CAB file to open it.
3 Select all (Ctrl+A) files in the opened CAB, right click on the selected files, and click/tap on Extract. (see screenshot below)
4 Navigate to and select the destination folder you want to extract (copy) all files from the CAB to, and click/tap on Extract. (see screenshot below)
expand
Reference article for the expand command, which expands one or more compressed files.
learn.microsoft.com
1 Open Windows Terminal, and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.
2 Type the command below into Terminal, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
expand "<full path of CAB file with extension>" -F:* "<full path of destination folder>"Substitute <full path of CAB file with extension> in the command above with the actual full path of the CAB file you want to extract all file from.
Substitute <full path of destination folder> in the command above with the full path of the folder you want to extract all files to.
For example: expand "C:\Users\Brink\OneDrive\Desktop\Realtek.cab" -F:* "C:\Users\Brink\OneDrive\Desktop\Folder"
That's it,
Shawn Brink
Last edited:
