Cannot Use CabView to View Contents of Cabinet Files

By: Arie Slob

If you have CabView installed (CabView is part of the Windows 95 Power Toys Set. You can download [209KB] the Power Toys Set from Microsoft, or visit this page for more information), you can view the contents of a cabinet (.cab) file, by double-clicking, or by right-clicking and choosing View from the menu.

If you install WinZip 7.0, it will automatically associate itself with cab files, and you can only use WinZip to view .cab files. Uninstalling WinZip does not re-associate .cab files with CabView.

To fix this:

Start the Registry Editor
Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ .cab
Rename the (Default) key to:
Exit the Registry Editor

In some cases this will not work, if so:

Start the Registry Editor
Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ CLSID \ {0CD7A5C0-9F37-11CE-AE65-08002B2E1262} \ shell \ open \ command
Rename the (Default) key to:
Exit the Registry Editor

After you modify the registry, you can view the contents of .cab files in the following ways:

Double-click a .cab file to view its contents using CabView
Right-click a .cab file, and then click View. CabView is used to display the contents of the file
Right-click a .cab file, and then click Extract to... WinZip is used to display the contents of the file

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Cannot Use CabView to View Contents of Cabinet Files