Database Users

Converting EXE to CAB for Extended ROM Auto-Install?

Hey Guys,
I have been customising my extended rom so when I hard reset I get all the applications I want (Resco file explorer etc). I have been doing this with .cab files fine.
The problem is that I have files which are .exe setup files (e.g Flash player 6). These have to be installed on the PC, and the cab is copied to the XDA and run. I would like to just have e.g a flash CAB file to put on the extended ROM.
is there a way to convert the PC EXE into a XDA cab file, or some way to run the PC exe on the device automatically in extended rom?
I know some .exe setup files can be extracted using winrar which then give you the cab file, flash player isnt one of them though.
Regards,
Jez.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=10058

Jez said:
is there a way to convert the PC EXE into a XDA cab file, or some way to run the PC exe on the device automatically in extended rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe) to look for the path where your Desktop Exes are extracted to PocketPC Cabs:
Look for this value:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows CE Services]
"InstalledDir"="k:\system\hardware\pda\imate\ASync"
Now, open your Windows Explorer and go to the path. You will find your cabs in corresponding folders (e.g, folder MacromediaFlash shall contain Flash6.arm.cab and etc...)
If you need to do more complex restoration, use Restorator tool. It restores your directory and file structure, registry settings, installs cabs, writes boot screens and does everything nice...

Oh my god, you are both bloody geniouses!!
This is wicked, cheers guys!
Regards,
Jez.

Any other ways to xtracting & repacking to cab?
Renaming the file format (exe to any formats) & exe xtractor software doesn't work.
I can compress any data to .cab, but how to xtract perfectly exe files?

Convert EXE to Cab online without having to download any software
If you have an EXE file that you would normaly run on your PC to install a sofware... it looks like this online converter work to have it converted into a cab file for your cell phone!!!
try it!
1- first you need to compress your EXE file into a ZIP folder... that will create a ZIP file on your desktop.
2- then you go to http://media-convert.com/convert/
3- browse on the first field to determine witch file on your pc you want to convert .. select the ZIP file you just created...
4- on the second part of the page you will be ask what format you want to convert your ZIP file to .. on the scrolldown menu select . CAB... and hit the convert button .. the online service will do the rest ..
Basicaly will upload your file onto their server , process it and render it to you on a file download link ...
There you go you have now a CAB version of your EXE file to upload on your phone with ActiveSync...

My problem
how to say... the site is cool ,and i get my file converted. However, the nature of that file hasn't been changed into a cab. it is still an exe. I dunno if i have done something wrong when converting.

K-JAM CAB Delete Disable tool - Stop CAB files being deleted

I made a little CAB file which contains a reg key to prevent CAB files from being deleted after you install them.
Just run this on your K-JAM and no more CAB files will be deleted.
(Although ironically of course it still deletes this CAB file since the change doesn't take place until after the install finishes and this file is deleted.)

Neat!

I store CAB files in zip files, when I want to install anything, just open it and run from zip. This way my CABs are not deleted either.

I think it's enough if you set the Read Only attribute on the CAB file.

Re: K-JAM CAB Delete Disable tool - Stop CAB files being del
awojtas said:
I made a little CAB file which contains a reg key to prevent CAB files from being deleted after you install them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my solution is CabInstaller program. simply copy it on your wizard, run it and check two options:
[x] Do not delete CAB file
[x] Associate CabInstl with CAB files
from now on, CabInstaller will popup after every CAB file installation attempt, then just click install and that's it!

I've got my cabs on a storage card, and within totalcommander you can
set the properties of the cabs to "read only",
this works like a good workaround for me, some cabs i want to be deleted,
some not..

I agree^^^. I set them to read only before I copy them to the device and they are fine. If you have something like total commander or resco explorer then you can set the Read Only attribute on the device.

Extract .dll from .cab

Excuse me for beeing a newbie, but can't seem to fin any way to extract the .dll and .gif files from a cab file. For example I downloaded CrossbowPhonepad.zip from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=292014&highlight=media+player+skin
But I'm not quite happy with the way it looks and I would like to start to play and alter with it. But when I extract the .Cab file all i get is strange .012-fil and so on. And of course the .XML file where you se how the .dll and .gif files shall be installed.
How to I extract them (.dll and . gif) from the .Cab file??
I'v tried Winrar, Winace, Total commander.
Please Help

the simplist way
Have you tried cabdump.pl (it can be found on the XDA-Wiki, main wiki page->complete tool list -> RomTools->cabdump.pl)
But I've found the simplest way is to install the cab on your device, and then copy the files you're interested in to your pc.

There is an excellent, easy to use program called MSCEInf that allows you to work with CAB files, including drag and drop extraction of files - with their original names - from CAB installation files. It's available here:
http://www.freewareppc.com/utilities/msceinf.shtml
It's developed by a Frenchman named Benoît Thonnart.

You should also try WinCE Cab Manager.
But generally WinRar works fine. The files in the cab are simply renamed to 8.3 convention with extension showing the file number. Extract the xml and you will see what name belongs to what file. Just extract and rename.

Thanx gues...that really helped

Auto install of CAB files

Hi all,
I have a cab file (call it cab1) containing three files to install on a WM5.0 device. These three files are another cab file (call it cab2) and two config files. I drop cab1 onto the device and it executes. This puts cab2 and the two config files into the correct folders that I want. This is all fine
What I need to happen then is for cab2 to auto execute without anymore interaction. How can I add this instruction to cab1?
Dropping cab2 into the startup folder and waiting for the device to soft reset is not an option for me
The whole install needs to happen on the device by sending a single cab file to the device i.e. I cannot use any msi etc to install over ActiveSync
I've created the cabs in VS2005
Thanks for any help

This one is tricky. You need to create a setup.dll for cab1 then have it launch an exe and exit. The exe will wait about a second for th cab installer to complete then launch the installation of cab2.
i believe this is the only way to accomplish what you want with one cab without combining the content of cab1 and cab2 in to a single cab.

Thanks levenum
Combining the cabs is what I would like to do but cab2 is signed so I can't unpack it without breaking it. That's why I went down the road of putting it into another cab with the other files I need to install
Is there a way to add a post-install command to launch cab2 in the setup.dll of cab1(or anywhere else)?

What levenum means is that you can't launch the installation of the second cab from the first one. The reason for this is that only one instance of wceload.exe can be running.
You need to build a setup.dll in the first cab file. The first cab must also have an exe that will install the second cab file. You launch the exe from the setup.dll. The exe must wait until wceload.exe has shut down after installing the first cab before it can install the second one by running createprocess on wceload.exe with the right arguments.
If you don't know how to make the setup.dll, take a look in the Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK. It includes an example on how to do this.
Did you get it?
Øystein

Any App For Changing .Exe to .Cab ? ? ?

is there any program to convert .exe to .cab ?
i don't want to use pc for installing files like that .........

what i do,.... use the exe in your pc without the pda,... activesync will try to install the app in the ppc,... dont't touch it....
Go thru my pc to the folder where activesync is installed,... there you will see one folder named usually like the app you wanna install,... open it and you will see the cab ,... done....
Excuse my english ,.... thanks

I've never tried it myself, but presumably the CAB file is just wrapped up in the installer so you can probably open the EXE using something like WinRAR and just extract the CAB file from it yourself.

There is no general solution for this.
In most cases the CAB files are inside an installer EXE. The possibility and effort to "extract" the cab varies depending from the EXE (there are many different packers and installers on the market).
Some of them can be opened with packers like WinRAR or 7zip, others can't.
There is one thing they all have in common: the CAB has to be (temporary) installed onto your harddisk. This might be under "Programm Files\Software Vendor\", ActiveSync directory or an temp directory, for example "C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Temp\<subdir?>" in Windows XP. In some cases the CAB will be deletet when the setup programm ends.
So, unfortunately, there is no generic method to extract the CAB.

open the exe in winrar or a similar archiving program and look for the cab (probably a jumbled up name, though still has the .cab file extension)

just extract the EXE using winrar and copy the CAB file in there to your mobile device.