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WinXPTutor's XP Resources

Windows XP Tips, Illustrations and registry edits

How to extract a system file from the Windows XP CD-ROM?

There are situations where you need to expand a DLL file or any other system file from the Windows XP CD-ROM, in order to replace a corrupt or missing file in the system. Here are the instructions to expand a file from the source CD.

Note: If you have a Service Pack installed, you need to extract the latest copy of the DLL. Your base Windows XP CD (without any Service Packs included) will not help if you already have a Service Pack installed in your system. Therefore, make sure that you're extracting the system file from a slipstreamed Windows XP CD-ROM (SP2 integration), or get the updated files from %Windir%\ServicePackFiles\i386 folder.

Extracting a file from Windows XP CD-ROM

Insert your Windows XP CD-ROM into the drive. Click Start, Run and type CMD.EXE. Use the Expand command. Here are some examples - to expand a file from the CD:

Example 1

expand X:\i386\sysoc.in_ -r c:\windows\inf

Example 2

expand X:\i386\sysoc.in_ c:\windows\inf\sysoc.inf

Where X:\ is your CD-ROM drive letter. The above command assumes Windows is installed in C:\ drive. If not, change the drive letter / Path accordingly.

Example: expand H:\i386\sysoc.in_ -r g:\windows\inf

See also: Microsoft Windows XP - Expand