Pulling .CAB from a desktop installer?

[wardseward]

I hate that these desktop installers for PPC apps put a bunch of junk on my pc. So, i want to start installing all my PPC apps on the device via the .CAB files. Is there a way to pull a .CAB from the desktop installer .exe file?

[easylife]

Yes. :D Go into your ActiveSync install folder (most likely C:\Program Files\Microsoft ActiveSync) and fish around for the CAB files in the folders. For each program, you may find some labled ARM, SH3, MIPS, or the like. Go for ARM (or ARM2002 or ARM 2003 depending on your OS) unless you use a PPC 2000 non-iPaq PPC. :wink:

[bljarv]

Won't doing that dump everything to internal memory without the option of installing to your storage card? You will fill up your Pocket PC in no time if that's the case.

[smittyofdhs]

Yes. :D Go into your ActiveSync install folder (most likely C:\Program Files\Microsoft ActiveSync) and fish around for the CAB files in the folders. For each program, you may find some labled ARM, SH3, MIPS, or the like. Go for ARM (or ARM2002 or ARM 2003 depending on your OS) unless you use a PPC 2000 non-iPaq PPC. :wink:

the problem with this suggestion is that it means the user has already installed the program via the EXE file. For the file to be in the activesync folder (or subfolder of) the EXE file had to have been run.The original task was to extract the cab file from the EXE without having to install the EXE.

I've found that some of the install EXE files can be opened with winzip and then you can get the CAB file from there. Of course, it depends upon which type of installer is used by the author of the software. This tip only works with certain types of installers.