Installing a driver from an INF file or a CAB package

DeviceInBox editorial team · Last updated October 6, 2026

Most driver packages come with an installer, but plenty do not. Packages from the Microsoft Update Catalog are .cab archives, OEM downloads are often plain folders with .inf, .sys and .cat files, and a stripped-down package may be all that exists for an older chip. Windows installs those directly, and knowing how saves you from installer utilities that bundle other software.

Contents of an unpacked driver package: INF, SYS, CAT and DLL files — The INF describes the devices, the SYS is the driver, the CAT holds the signature.

Unpack the package first

A .cab file has to be unpacked before anything can use it. From a Command Prompt:

expand -F:* C:\Users\You\Downloads\package.cab C:\drv

A .zip file unpacks with Explorer. An .exe from a laptop maker is usually a self-extracting archive: run it, let it copy its files, and look in C:\SWSetup, C:\Dell, C:\Program Files\... or your temp folder. Whatever the route, you need a folder that contains at least one .inf file.

Command Prompt unpacking a CAB package with expand into a folder — expand with -F:* takes every file out of the CAB.

Install through Device Manager

This is the method to use when one specific device needs the driver.

Right-click the device in Device Manager and choose Update driver.
Pick "Browse my computer for drivers".
Select the unpacked folder, tick "Include subfolders", and click Next.
If Windows says the best driver is already installed, go back and choose "Let me pick from a list of available drivers", then Have Disk, and point it at the .inf file itself.

Update Drivers dialog with the folder selected and Include subfolders ticked — Include subfolders matters: INF files often sit one level down.

Install with pnputil

pnputil ships with Windows and adds a package to the driver store, which is what every installer does underneath. Open Command Prompt or PowerShell as administrator:

pnputil /add-driver C:\drv\*.inf /subdirs /install

It prints each INF it processed, the published name it assigned, and whether it installed the driver on a matching device. The published name, something like oem42.inf, is how you refer to the package later.

pnputil output listing added driver packages and their published names — pnputil reports exactly what it added and where it landed.

Useful commands around it:

pnputil /enum-drivers lists every third-party package in the store.
pnputil /delete-driver oem42.inf /uninstall /force removes one and takes it off the devices using it.
pnputil /scan-devices makes Windows look again at devices without drivers.

Picking the right INF when there are several

A package often holds one INF per architecture or per Windows version, for example netrtwlane.inf, netrtwlane13.inf and so on. Pointing Windows at the folder with subfolders enabled is enough: it reads the INFs, keeps the ones that list your hardware ID and that fit the Windows version, and ignores the rest.

Open an INF in Notepad if you want to check by hand. The [Manufacturer] section names the model sections, and the model lines carry the hardware IDs:

%RTL8168.DeviceDesc% = RTL8168.ndi, PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_8168&REV_15

If your ID is not in any INF in the package, the package is for a different chip, no matter what its name says. Compare the ID (how to read it) with the supported IDs listed on the driver page here before downloading.

When the install is refused

"The third-party INF does not contain digital signature information": the package is unsigned or its .cat file is missing. See Code 52.
"The driver is not intended for this platform": wrong architecture, 32-bit against 64-bit Windows or x64 against ARM64.
The install works but the device then shows Code 10: the INF accepted the ID, but the driver does not actually run that chip revision. Look for a newer package.
Nothing happens at all: check that you opened the prompt as administrator, and that the folder path has no quotes missing around spaces.

Related: Code 28, Code 39 and finding a hardware ID.