Extract Installshield Cab

[Meri Thilmony]

UniversalExtractor is a program doing exactly what it says: extract files from any type of archive, whether it's a simple ZIP file, an installation program, or even a Windows Installer (.msi) package.

"i6comp" (UniExtract) and/or "unshield" is a wasted effort anymore. Anything equal or over InstallShield v12 (InstallScript Projects) will not extract. InstallShield's own "CabView" (ISCabVu.exe) will let you do one file at a time. But I need to extract over 10,000 files for each separate language to rebuild an installer. So in this regard it doesn't help much either.

The only option I have found is taking the IS2009 "iscab.exe" (last version released) and placing in my IS2010 system directory. Add IS "system" path to your %path% ENV. Ended up having to create 15 separate INI files, but got all the LANG dependent files separated. Certainly beats using Cab View and repeating an extract 10,000 times!

Edit another new INI file - duplicating layout of first INI.

Only include files you want to extract. (Or, just edit the non-backup/original INI from above and remove anything you don't want to extract.)

I've used IZArc with great success for this task. IZArc is similar to WinZip but it is free and does not contain the annoying "Register" features. IZArc will let you browse the .cab file just like it is a folder on your computer.

If it is possible to have a generic solution, for all recent versions of InstallShield that would be best.

Otherwise, if a solution only works for some versions of InstallShield it would be a step on the way. (It would probably be possible to deduce which InstallShield version a setup.exe is by looking at version resources of the exe-file.

I found that some InstallShield versions support /b or /extract_all. However there is no good way of knowing, just launching the exe and hoping it will extract and terminate orderly rather then displaying GUI dialogs doesn't seem like a good solution. So I am therefore looking for a more stable way.

Ideas welcome.

There's no supported way to do this, but won't you have to examine the files related to each installer to figure out how to actually install them after extracting them? Assuming you can spend the time to figure out which command-line applies, here are some candidate parameters that normally allow you to extract an installation.

On Linux there is unshield, which worked well for me (even if the GUI includes custom deterrents like license key prompts). It is included in the repositories of all major distributions (arch, suse, debian- and fedora-based) and its source is available at

The MSI Windows Installer is the most popular packaging format used in Enterprise environments. A lot of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) create their software installer using MSI Windows Installer technology, whether they provide the installer in MSI format directly or wrap it into a setup EXE.

When the MSI installer isn't extracted to the Temp folder, it may instead be located in another directory, such as C:\Program Files\Common Files. In this case, the installer can still run from that location during the installation process.

While there is no universal method for extracting an MSI from an EXE, there are several options available, including using an archive extractor like 7zip, locating the MSI in the temp folder, and using Task Manager or Process Monitor to identify the MSI's location during installation.

Additionally, some setup EXE tools have built-in extract switches that allow you to extract the contents of an EXE installer. By trying out these various approaches, you can determine which one works best for your particular EXE installer.

Horatiu is a Software Packager/Sequencer with over 10 years experience, who has worked as a Software Packager at IBM and is currently offering software packaging services to companies such as BT or Nationwide.

In my %TEMP% folder, a Sketchup folder was created. In that Sketchup folder, a Setup.exe file was present and running it from the %TEMP% folder allowed the install to run. There was a conflict reported though with the Qualcomm Bluetooth Driver. I disabled bluetooth and install went fine.

Install Winrar and then click on the installer .exe for Sketchup and either open it in Winrar or if on the context menu you see the option. Extract to a directory which will be same name as the executable then do that.

Explanation of what is happening is that you want to extract the contents of the .exe sketchup installer, which is really a self executing compressed archive file format. So once you have extracted the contents run the presetup.exe file that was in the archive.

I choose Installshield /b switch and it starts out ok, but it seems like Universal Extractor doesn't give the process enough time(for the exe to run and to click through all the options), because at exactly the same time(about 10 seconds maybe) every time it stops and give an error "Initialization failed. Please exit the installer, then click OK to continue.". So I click OK then another popup says:

Basically, at various times, I and many others have had problems with Manually getting Google Chrome to Update. Now, please bare with me here, I know it doesn't sound like it's got anything to do with Universal Extractor, but, it seems, it does.

Rather than completely re-typing the info of the problem that we have been experiencing directly on here, please visit the following webpage and read the comments, especially from no.208 onwards (near the bottom of the page, at the present time) :-

I'd be interested as to your comments on it and, obviously, if you can do something to create the 'Documents' file somewhere else other than C:\ OR not to create it in the first place as your software program usually creates a file called 'and', in the directory in to which you've extracted the files, which contains the same information.

If you could do this, I believe that it would help out many other people who use both your program AND Google Chrome. Alternatively, you may be of the view that the Google Chrome developers should fix it from their end, but, although I am not a programmer or an experienced Debugger either, I feel that as your program creates the offending file in the first place, that you should see if it's possible to change your code so as to create it in it's own installation folder, for example., and NOT C:\.

Have been using E_WISE_W.exe for a number of years to automate harvesting of a file from within an installer. Now all of a sudden it stopped working. I suspect the vendor changed something with the installer, but I do not know. the log claims this:

Trying to install 2018 now, but the installer tells me there is not enough disk space to install no matter what location I choose. I have 200GB free on my C drive and 1TB free on my D:\, but I get the same message on both. Anyone seen this issue before?

Does it give the same error if you select C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Desktop and attempt to install it there, does the same error occur?

If so, I suspect it may be a permissions issue throwing up the wrong error, as both you and the dxdiag have confirmed plenty of free space on all drives. In that case, contact te...@vectorworks.net and they will likely check your folder permissions to see if the installer is being stopped somewhere along the way.

A few quick things to try in the meantime as well:

Disable ANY active malware of antivirus application, as they can sometimes cause things like this.

Throw away the installer you have currently, empty the recycle bin, and then download it again. Its pretty unlikely the installer was corrupt and still managed to get this far, but its a possibility.

Hi @bcarrigg90 and @AJ Roslevich, I provide Tech Support for Vectorworks users in New Zealand. Currently I have a Windows 10 user experiencing this issue with Vectorworks 2018 which is highly unusual. We need to know what resolved this matter for you. Can you please tell us what worked for you?

@MMajor124 and @Jim Wilson, based on this discussion I suspect this the storage type of the disk/partition might be a factor. See basic vs dynamic storage types. To determine a disk type, open 'Disk Management' and look at the 'Type' column for the applicable volume. I expect the solution will be to format the volume/partition back to the 'basic' type.

Tech Support in the USA has advised this has been fixed by one of a few different things for different users. They have also confirmed that Vectorworks installers should be compatible with 'dynamic' volumes/partitions, so ignore my prior comment.

So far this has only occurred on computers that have hard drives with multiple partitions/volumes. Do you have multiple partitions/volumes on your hard drive? if you're not sure you can use the Windows utility called 'Disk Management' to determine:

I really appreciate the info but unfortunately, this isn't working for me. I've downloaded multiple times, unzipped with 7zip, Winrar, and Winzip and still I get the warning saying I don't have space. I do indeed have space, 150GB in fact. I have contacted my VW tech support directly and am waiting to hear back. Thanks again for your efforts. I'll post a solution if I find one.

@jakez I was able to get VW2018 installed by following the instructions posted above. In case it's not clear, you have to extract the installer from the zip folder you downloaded, then find the file named "Vectorworks 20XX Installer" and extract that, as well. There are two levels of extraction.

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