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After upgrading to Windows 10 1809, I'm unable to build a Cab Project in Visual Studio 2008 Pro. The application we're packaging into a CAB file is for Windows CE 6.0, hence the ancient version of Visual Studio.

I can see in the output window that the following command is run:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\smartdevices\sdk\sdktools\cabwiz.exe" "C:\VB2008PRO\Stock System v4.0.6764.19135\CABProject\Release\CABProject.inf" /dest "C:\VB2008PRO\Stock System v4.0.6764.19135\CABProject\Release\" /err CabWiz.log

If I run this myself, I see the exit code was 1, so something went wrong.

The output I see in the CabWiz.log file is:

Warning: Section [RegKeys] has no data
Warning: Section [DefaultInstall] key "AddReg" - there are no section entries to process
Error: CAB file "C:\VB2008PRO\Stock System v4.0.6764.19135\CABProject\Release\CABProject.CAB" could not be created

So I can see that the CABProject.CAB file cannot be created, but what's the reason?? I tried disabling anti-virus temporarily, but that wasn't the reason.

I can't be the only one to have tried this in Windows 1809... has anyone else experienced this issue?

Matty Brown
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1 Answers1

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Seemingly, to build CAB projects in Windows, you need to have 8.3 file name creation enabled and ensure that your files have 8.3 file names after you re-enable it.

  1. Check if 8.3 file names are enabled on the volume where your project is located, using fsutil.

    C:\Users\matty>fsutil 8dot3name query c: The volume state is: 0 (8dot3 name creation is enabled). The registry state is: 0 (Enable 8dot3 name creation on all volumes).

    Based on the above settings, 8dot3 name creation is enabled on c:

  2. If 8dot3 name creation is disabled, enable it in the registry or via the command line:

    fsutil 8dot3name set C: 1

This operation takes effect immediately (no reboot required).

  1. Archive and delete the files and then extract them back to the same location. This is the only reliable way I found of getting Windows to generate all the 8dot3 file names for all files in the project.

  2. Build your CAB project!

Matty Brown
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