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Cabinet files are Microsoft's internal archive format. They're everywhere in Windows but rarely seen directly — .cab files live inside MSI installers, Windows Update packages, driver archives, and system component stores. When Windows installs an update or a driver, it's extracting from cabinet files behind the scenes.
The format supports multiple compression algorithms (MSZIP, LZX, Quantum), multi-part archives spanning multiple files, and digital signatures. It predates ZIP in Microsoft's ecosystem, dating back to Windows 95's installer. The .cab format is optimised for installation workflows rather than general-purpose archiving.
You can open .cab files with Windows Explorer (double-click), 7-Zip, or the `expand` command (`expand archive.cab -F:* destination\`). Most users encounter .cab files when downloading driver packages or Windows hotfixes. For general-purpose archiving, use ZIP — .cab is a specialised format for Windows deployment.