How to Edit CAB files

[Grumpy]

We had to do some cleaning up of the CD to DVD Thread so I have copied this info here as it is of interest! Hope the contrubuters dont mind!
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(Posted by 'Asimov')

How do you edit cab files?
What program are you supposed to use?
I asked this question a little while back in one of the threads but it went un-answered.
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(Posted by 'The One')

You can use CabPack
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/english.htm
to edit .cab files but you have to save as new cabs. This program will not edit Installsheild cabs though.

For Installsheild cabs You need the ICOMP cab editor which can be found here http://cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/files.shtml. I have used this program many times to insert the cracked game executable into the setup cab and make a cracked setup and it will also extract files. ICOMP does not have a GUI, it command line based.
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(Posted by 'Asimov')

Thanks the One. I managed to download the cabPack fine but the icomp link didnt work properly. I searched and found it here http://sac-ftp.externet.hu/pack9.html for anyone thats interested and has the same problem as me.

Thanks again the One.
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(Posted by 'The one')

You must use the correct version for the Installsheild version. I find that I6COMP/v0.20 works most of the latest versions of Installsheild. This utlilty hasn't been updated in some time though so in some cases it doesn't work. I just used it on Star Wars Battlefront and it worked ok.

You must use these command lines when inserting or extracting files

i6comp r data1.cab game.exe.....this will insert a file
i6comp x data1.cab game.exe.....this will extract the file

You can make a .bat file to make it easier, Here's the bat I use

@echo off
i6comp r data1.cab game.exe
echo.
echo All done
echo.
pause

Just put the I6COMP.exe, I6COMP.bat and the file to inserted in the same folder as the setup cabs. You also must put all of the setup cabs from the setup in this folder plus the data1.hdr file.

I like to try extracting first to verify the the file is in fact in the specified cab, plus I always backup the original file. You will also find that with multiCD setups, if you alter the cab files then the setup no longer works correctly from multiple CDs. Instead of installing the selected file from the first cab like normal, You will be asked for the second CD almost imediately, then the setup fails. Maybe 3% of the multi CD games I've use this with actually work. If you put all CDs onto one DVD it's ok because all the cabs are in the same location and there is no disc swithching.

Here's another place to download this utility
ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/pack/i6comp02.zip
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(Posted by 'VanTokkern')

What if the cab file doesn't come with the hdr file?

I've also tried doing exactly you said,

It can extract files but not insert them What am I doing wrong?

EDIT: NM! I've figured it out, seems like it needs a few more extra files other than the cab files and the hdr. Don't know exactly what files But extracting all the installation files into the same directory seemed to be working fine, thanks a lot for this excellent program. Feels so much better knowing I'm this much closer to perfection.
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