CAB to GZ Converter
FileFlip converts CAB to GZ entirely inside your browser, using libarchive compiled to WebAssembly. The file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. That means no file-size limit, no queue and no account.
How do I convert a CAB file to GZ?#
- Drop your CAB file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer. You can add as many as you like.
- Leave the target set to GZ and the conversion starts on its own. FileFlip downloads 1.0 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs libarchive on your own machine.
- Save the GZ file. Your browser writes it straight to your downloads folder, because there was never a server holding it.
Does converting CAB to GZ lose quality?#
No. Converting CAB to GZ does not touch the files inside the archive. Each member is read out and written back byte for byte, so only the wrapper around them changes and nothing is recompressed.
Is it safe to convert CAB files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts CAB files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What CAB to GZ actually does to the file#
Converting CAB to GZ runs on libarchive, downloads 1.0 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, copies the archived files through unchanged, keeps file contents.
| Engine | libarchive |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | 2 steps: CAB → the unpacked files → GZ |
| Downloaded to your browser | 1.0 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Lossless, contents copied unchanged |
| You get back | One file |
| Where it runs | In a background worker, so the page stays responsive |
What survives the conversion
| What is in the file | This conversion | Why |
|---|---|---|
| File contents | Kept | Carried through into the converted file. |
| File timestamps | Sometimes | Survives for some files and not others. |
| File permissions | Sometimes | Survives for some files and not others. |
Worth knowing before you start:
- the output is a PAX tar archive inside the compressor, not a single compressed stream
- every entry is extracted into memory before anything is written, so a very large archive can exhaust it
What is a CAB file?#
A CAB file is Microsoft's cabinet archive, a single compressed container that Windows Setup, Windows Installer and driver packages use to hold the files they install.
CAB is the format to reach for when building a Windows driver package or installer component, since Windows Setup and Windows Installer both expect it.
Convert a CAB archive to ZIP when its contents need to be handled on a system without Windows' built-in cabinet support.
What is a GZ file?#
A GZ file wraps a single DEFLATE-compressed stream in a header that can carry the original filename and modification time, plus a trailing CRC-32 checksum, as defined in RFC 1952.
Use GZ to compress a single file quickly, especially one going over HTTP, where gzip decoding is effectively free.
Convert GZ to XZ when the same data needs to be as small as possible and slower compression is an acceptable cost.
CAB to GZ questions people ask#
What is a CAB file used for?
A CAB file is Microsoft's cabinet archive format, used to package the files inside Windows installers, Windows Update packages and printer or device driver bundles. Windows extracts one natively without any extra software.
How do I open a CAB file on Windows?
Right-clicking a CAB file in File Explorer and choosing Extract All unpacks it directly, since Windows has built-in cabinet support. The command-line expand.exe tool does the same thing for scripting.
Can I open a CAB file on macOS or Linux?
Yes. The cabextract command-line tool handles CAB files on Linux and macOS, and 7-Zip's Linux and macOS port, p7zip, reads them as well, since Microsoft's cabinet format has been reverse-engineered thoroughly enough that third-party tools support it reliably.
Can a GZ file contain more than one file?
No, gzip compresses exactly one file or stream, so a .gz archive holding several files is actually a tar archive that's been compressed afterward, normally named .tar.gz or .tgz.