How do I install a .cab file?

It depends what is inside. For a Windows package, run dism /online /add-package /packagepath:"file.cab" from an elevated prompt. For a driver, extract the cabinet and run pnputil /add-driver "driver.inf" /install. If it is only an archive, there is nothing to install and you just extract it.

Why does double-clicking a .cab not install anything?

Because a cabinet is an archive, not an installer. File Explorer opens it as a browsable folder so you can copy files out, and that is all a double-click does. Installing means telling Windows to register the component, which is what DISM and pnputil are for.

How do I extract a .cab file?

The simplest route is 7-Zip, or File Explorer itself, which lets you copy files straight out of the cabinet. Windows also ships expand: expand -D "file.cab" lists the contents, and the documented extraction form is expand "file.cab" -F:* "C:\destination" with the destination folder already created. Extracting is not the same as installing, so for a package or a driver this only gets you the files.

How do I install a .cab file on Windows 11?

Exactly as on Windows 10. DISM for a Windows package, pnputil for a driver, expand or 7-Zip if you only need the files. Nothing about cabinets changed between the two versions.

File extensions

How to install a .cab file

Windows Cabinet archive · Installer

Double-clicking a .cab opens it like a folder, which is why installing one confuses people: opening and installing are different things here. What installs it depends on the contents. A Windows package goes in with DISM, a driver with pnputil, and a cabinet that is simply an archive only needs extracting.

What a .cab file actually is

Cabinet is Microsoft’s own compressed archive format and it has been in Windows since the early nineties. It is not an installer: it is a container, and Windows uses it to ship update packages, driver packages and the payload inside MSI installers.

That is the whole source of the confusion. A .cab can hold a Windows component that DISM knows how to install, a driver with its .inf, or just files. Nothing about the extension tells you which, so there is no single command that works for all of them.

Why it will not open

Because double-clicking appears to work. File Explorer shows the contents like a folder, so it looks opened, and nothing has been installed. From there people try copying the files out by hand, which for an update package or a driver does nothing useful.

The installer format that carries cabinets inside it

Renaming it to an extension you can open will not help: changing the extension does not convert the file, it only changes what Windows tries to open it with.

Step by step

Windows

01Look inside first. Double-click it, or open it with 7-Zip. If you see a file ending in .inf it is a driver. If you see files with names like update.mum, it is a Windows package. If it is just ordinary files, it is only an archive.
02Windows package: open an elevated Command Prompt or PowerShell and run dism /online /add-package /packagepath:"C:\path\to\file.cab". Nothing happens without elevation.
03Driver: extract the cabinet first, then run pnputil /add-driver "C:\extracted\driver.inf" /install, also elevated. pnputil expects the .inf, not the .cab.
04To see what is inside without extracting anything: expand -D "file.cab" lists every entry. Worth running first, because the listing is what tells you which of the three cases you are in.
05Just extracting: 7-Zip opens a cabinet from the right-click menu and is the most predictable route. Windows also ships expand, whose documented form is expand "file.cab" -F:* "C:\destination", with the destination folder created beforehand.
06To confirm a package went in afterwards, dism /online /get-packages lists what is installed.

macOS

01CAB is a Windows format, and while several Mac archivers can extract one, the contents are Windows components. Extracting works; installing does not apply.
02If a cabinet arrived as part of Windows software you are trying to use on a Mac, the answer is a Windows virtual machine rather than the file itself.

What usually goes wrong

Opening it and installing it are not the same thing

This is the entire problem in one line. File Explorer shows a cabinet as a browsable folder, which reads as success, and copying files out of an update package or a driver package leaves you with loose files Windows has no record of. The install has to go through DISM or pnputil so that Windows registers the component, tracks its version and can remove it later.

“A cabinet file necessary for installation cannot be trusted”

This message comes from an MSI whose cabinet fails verification, and the usual causes are dull: a download that finished incompletely, or a copy that was modified in transit. It is worth taking at face value rather than working around, because it means the payload is not what the publisher signed. Getting the installer again from the publisher, and checking its hash, resolves it far more often than any registry fix.

A .cab from a search result is worth more suspicion than most

Cabinets turn up in searches for missing system components and driver updates, which is exactly the situation where people run whatever they find. A cabinet installed with DISM becomes part of Windows, and a driver installed with pnputil runs in kernel space. Both deserve to come from the hardware vendor or from Microsoft, not from a download aggregator.

Programs that open .cab

Our pick, in order. Every one links to the publisher's official download URL and the SHA-256 hash of the installer. Once you have downloaded it, you can check the file against our index before you run it.

If you end up downloading one of these from somewhere other than the publisher, what you can and cannot verify about that is worth two minutes.

7-ZipA file archiver with a high compression ratio.v26.02 · 6 hashed installers95

Also registers .cab in its manifest

Taken straight from publisher manifests. Some of these handle the format for a narrow purpose rather than as their main job.

Common questions

How do I install a .cab file?: It depends what is inside. For a Windows package, run dism /online /add-package /packagepath:"file.cab" from an elevated prompt. For a driver, extract the cabinet and run pnputil /add-driver "driver.inf" /install. If it is only an archive, there is nothing to install and you just extract it.
Why does double-clicking a .cab not install anything?: Because a cabinet is an archive, not an installer. File Explorer opens it as a browsable folder so you can copy files out, and that is all a double-click does. Installing means telling Windows to register the component, which is what DISM and pnputil are for.
What is a cabinet file?: Microsoft’s compressed archive format, used since the early nineties. Windows ships update packages, driver packages and the payload inside MSI installers in cabinets. The extension tells you how it is compressed, not what it contains.
How do I extract a .cab file?: The simplest route is 7-Zip, or File Explorer itself, which lets you copy files straight out of the cabinet. Windows also ships expand: expand -D "file.cab" lists the contents, and the documented extraction form is expand "file.cab" -F:* "C:\destination" with the destination folder already created. Extracting is not the same as installing, so for a package or a driver this only gets you the files.
How do I install a .cab file on Windows 11?: Exactly as on Windows 10. DISM for a Windows package, pnputil for a driver, expand or 7-Zip if you only need the files. Nothing about cabinets changed between the two versions.
What does “a cabinet file necessary for installation cannot be trusted” mean?: An MSI checked the cabinet holding its files and the check failed, which usually means the download is incomplete or was altered. Rather than looking for a way around it, fetch the installer again from the publisher and verify its hash: the message is telling you the payload is not what was published.