Cannot Manually Extract Files from Cabinet Files

ID: Q171241

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 4.0, 4.01, 5 for Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

When you use the Extract tool to manually extract a file from an Internet Explorer 4.0 cabinet file, you may receive the following error message:

   Cabinet <cabinet>.cab
   Extracting <filename>
   ERROR: Unknown compression type in cabinet file <cabinet>.cab

CAUSE

This error message can occur if you are not using the version of the Extract tool (Extract.exe) included with Internet Explorer 4.0.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, extract the updated Extract.exe file from the Setupw95.cab cabinet file to the Windows\Command folder, and then try to extract the file again.

NOTE: The Setupw95.cab cabinet file uses an earlier compression scheme and works with the older Extract tool.

To extract the updated Extract.exe file, follow these steps:

NOTE: If you are manually extracting a file from an Internet Explorer 5 cabinet file and encounter this problem, the updated EXTRACT.EXE can be found in the GSETUP95.CAB. For Internet Explorer 5, the following command is used to extract the new file:

extract gsetup95.cab extract.exe /l c:\windows\command

1. Click Start, point to Programs, and then click MS-DOS Prompt.

2. Type the following command at a command prompt, and then press the

   ENTER key:

      cd\ 

   ENTER key:

      cd\intern~1.0se

   NOTE: This assumes that the Internet Explorer 4.0 Setup folder is
   in the root of the C drive. If you specified a different location for
   the Internet Explorer 4.0 Setup folder during Setup, change to that
   location before you continue with step 4.

   ENTER key:

   extract setupw95.cab extract.exe /l c:\windows\command

For additional information about using the Extract tool, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q129605
   TITLE     : How to Extract Original Compressed Windows Files

Keywords          : kberrmsg kbtool msiew95 kbfaq
Platform          : WINDOWS

Last Reviewed: April 17, 1999