With just a few mouse clicks you specify which files to compress, which compression method to use, where the output files should go and whether or not the cabinet files should span multiple disks. CabPack is able to store subdirectories, and depending on the platform you wish to extract the cabinets on, it can create .CAB files that contain long filenames or store these long filenames in the 8.3 format.

When Windows 95 came out, Microsoft introduced a new compression scheme for their distribution media: the cabinet files. I was curious: What is the compression rate of the CAB format, in comparison to other archivers? So I extracted the files from a cabinet file and re-compressed them using various popular compressors, including ZIP, ARJ and RAR, and even with maximum compression enabled, I was unable to achieve the same tight compression the original .CAB file had.

So I began searching for a utility that allowed me to create my own cabinet files. For over a year I was unable to find anything. Then, in 1997, Microsoft put up a CAB-SDK (cabinet software development kit) on their website. The CAB tools contained therein, however, were all command-line driven, and if you wanted to create .CAB files that spanned multiple disks, you had to create a so-called "directive file" which contained all necessary information and had to be passed over to the CAB compressor.

This was why I decided to write CabPack. It started out as a console application but has now developed into a true 32bit GUI program which makes it very easy for the user to create cabinet files. With just a few mouse clicks you specify which files to compress, which compression method to use, where the output files should go and whether or not the cabinet files should span multiple disks. CabPack is able to store subdirectories, and depending on the platform you wish to extract the cabinets on, it can create .CAB files that contain long filenames or store these long filenames in the 8.3 format.

What's New:

  • The ability to create spanned CABs directly on disk drives.
  • English and German version included.