display of cab files in windows explorer

[Tony Chu]

I'm new to cab files. I'm wondering if XP can display
them in Windows Explorer but previous versions couldn't?

I had copied & pasted a help folder from a product called
RoboHelp to my local C: drive at home, from my network
drive at work, via VPN.
I was surprised when I opened the folder in Windows XP
Windows Explorer to find a new icon, which expanded to
show a bunch of java CLASS files. I subsequently figured
out this was a cabinet file. But I've never seen it
before. I use Windows 2000 at work, but XP at home. Is
that why? I'm hoping that these files were always there,
and I've not done something to corrupt my work. I'm
hoping that XP just can see them and 2000 couldn't?

Other strange things. The cabinet file icon doesn't show
up all the time - only sometimes. And it also shows up
sometimes when I display my network drive at work from my
home computer. And when I ask for properties of my
copied folder, the cabinet file doesn't seem to be
counted in either the number of files or the byte count.
Is that all normal??

Tony Chu

 

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

This is a feature of XP. In previous versions of Windows, it was an add-on.
Now ZIP and CAB file support is built in to the Shell. This is known as
"Compressed Folders".