How to open a .CAB file online
No extra software to download or install.
Pick your .CAB file
Drag it in or click to choose it. We read its contents list first, so it opens right away without unpacking everything.
Browse what's inside
See every file with its size, how much it's compressed and its date, and search by name across all the folders.
Preview or download
Click a file to preview text or images, or save just that one. Need everything? Download it all as a single ZIP.
About .CAB files
What a .CAB file is, and what's inside it.
A CAB (Cabinet) file is Microsoft's compressed archive format, used to ship Windows drivers, updates, and installer payloads. On Windows, double-click it in File Explorer to browse, or use expand.exe and 7-Zip to extract. Most CAB files are consumed automatically by Windows setup or Windows Update and are not meant to be opened manually.
Programs that open .CAB files
| Full name | Windows Cabinet Archive |
|---|---|
| Developer | Microsoft |
| First released | 1990s (Microsoft Cabinet, MS-CAB); used since early Windows setup |
| Category | Archives |
| MIME type | application/vnd.ms-cab-compressed |
| Signature | 4D 53 43 46 "MSCF" - Microsoft Cabinet signature |
Related viewers
Found something inside the archive? Open it here.
Do I have to unpack the whole .CAB file?
No. The viewer reads its table of contents first and only unpacks a file when you click it. That works even with multi-gigabyte archives, because we read just the bytes we need.
Can I open password-protected archives?
Yes, for ZIP (ZipCrypto and AES) and 7Z. You'll be asked for the password,. We can't recover forgotten passwords.
Is my .CAB file uploaded anywhere?
No. The code that unpacks the file is downloaded once and then reused.
Why does a .docx or .apk open as an archive?
Because they are ZIP archives under the hood. Office documents, Android apps, Java programs and EPUB books all use ZIP as their container.
What about split archives (.001, .z01, .part1.rar)?
Multi-part archives need all their parts. Today you can open the first part to see the file list; joining parts is on our roadmap.
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