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windows-installercab
Rookasaur
Rookasaur

Reputation: 541

Extract CAB file from an MSI to create a smaller MSI?

I'm looking at removing the CAB file from a large MSI file, so that I am left with two files: A small MSI File and a large CAB File.

I've been using msidb to extract the CAB but I hit a brick wall here and cannot figure out how to reduce the size of the MSI to account for the CAB no longer being stored within it.

Any suggestions?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2154

Answers (1)

Christopher Painter
Christopher Painter

Reputation: 55571

MSI API doesn't per say have a compact database function. There's a help topic:

Reducing the Size of an .msi File that suggests:

To remove wasted storage space and reduce the final size of .msi files, you have the following options. •Export all of the tables in the database to .idt files, and then import those into a new database. This produces the most compact storage possible. •Use a software utility for compacting the storage space of OLE document files.

Assuming this is your MSI, just use your tool to build it uncompressed. If it's another MSI you'll have to follow the recommendations. You'll also need to update the Media table to tell it that you aren't using an embedded cab anymore.

Upvotes: 1

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