.CAB File

The cab file extension is used for native compressed archive format used in Microsoft Windows. Also known as Cabinet files.

CAB supports compression and digital signing, and is used by a variety of Microsoft installation engines, such as Setup API, Device Installer, AdvPack (for the installation of ActiveX components from Internet Explorer) and Windows Installer.

The cab file format works with three data compression methods:

• DEFLATE, invented by Phil Katz, the author of the ZIP file format.
• QUANTUM licensed from David Stafford, the author of the Quantum archiver.
• LZX, invented by Jonathan Forbes and Tomi Poutanen, given to Microsoft when Jonathan joined the company. 

The cab files are also used in many installers (InstallShield and others), although it is mostly completely different format. Sometimes are used in computer games.

The cab archives can be created with command-line tool included in Windows called: makecab.exe

A cab file extension is commonly used for compressed archives found in Microsoft Windows operating system.

How to open:

Some modern archiving tools, like WinRAR, 7-zip and many others, are able to open and extract contents of *.cab files.

How to convert:

CAB archives can be usually repacked to other archives. However doing so may make them unusable in their original program, specially if they were used for installation purposes.