You receive the "Setup failed" error message when you use a very large setup CAB file to install a program on a Pocket PC device (839561)

SYMPTOMS

If you try to install a program on a Pocket PC device by using a very large setup CAB file, you may receive the following error message:

Setup Failed. The file "<\path\filename>" is not a valid Windows CE Setup file

CAUSE

This problem may occur for one of the following reasons:

If the setup CAB file contains more than 998 files, the device-side installer tries to load a setup DLL. The installer tries to do this although a standard Windows CE format setup DLL is not packaged in the CAB file.
If the setup CAB file contains fewer than 999 files, the CAB file might be limited to 32 kilobytes (KB). Digital audio tape (DAT) files are limited to 32 KB if the files in the CAB file have very long file names.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, package no more than 998 files in CAB files that are meant for installation. This limit applies to the products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

Programs that have more than 998 files

If your program requires that more than 998 files are installed on the device, package some of the files in smaller CAB files, and then nest these smaller CAB files in the main setup CAB file. Use a standard Windows CE format Setup.dll file in the main setup CAB file to install each of the nested CAB files when you use the Wceload.exe loader program. For more information about the Wceload.exe loader program, see the "References" section.

Note Every CAB file has the same limit on the number of files and on the length of the file names as described in the "Cause" section.

Programs that have fewer than 999 files

If your program uses fewer than 999 files, use short file names for all the files in the setup CAB file.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft does not recommend that you use many hundreds of files with a Pocket PC program. Very large programs can cause slow installation. Additionally, performance problems or memory usage problems may occur while you run the program. Consider redesigning your program to use fewer files.

For more information about how to create custom CAB files, about how to create a standard Windows CE format Setup.dll file, or about how to install CAB files by using the Wceload.exe program, see the Pocket PC SDK Help documentation, or visit the following Microsoft MSDN Web sites:

Custom CAB files for devices
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_evtuv/html/etoricustomcabfilesfordevices.asp

Pocket PC Wceload.exe
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/amo_ppc/htm/amo__pocket_pc_wceload_exe__skvl.asp