Cabinet File (Microsoft installation archive) (.CAB)

This Microsoft format uses a compression format called MSZIP; basically a format based on Lempel-Ziv compression. Cabinet files are typically used by Microsoft for distribution (you'll typically find .CAB files on CDs from Microsoft, for example). The format, however, is available to other application developers and is sometimes used for distribution over the Web (the .ZIP format is still widely used despite this).

WinRAR provides basic operations for .cab files created by other tools: view contents, extract files, show comments and archive information.

You can use the convert function to convert .cab files into .rar format.

You do not need to have any external programs to handle these formats.