June 2015
This file contains important information about the LabVIEW roboRIO Toolkit, including system requirements, installation instructions, and known issues.
Installing the USBLAN Driver in Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003
Product Security and Critical Updates
Accessing the LabVIEW for roboRIO Environment
Automating the Installation of NI Products
How to Use NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.x
NI Software Support for Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003
The LabVIEW roboRIO Toolkit provides you with tools for creating and deploying applications on the roboRIO.
The roboRIO Toolkit has the following requirements:
Note
Refer to the LabVIEW Readme for additional system requirements and supported operating systems for LabVIEW 2015.
To install the roboRIO Toolkit using the LabVIEW roboRIO Software Bundle media, complete the following steps:
To install the roboRIO Toolkit using the installer from ni.com/downloads, double-click the setup.exe file in the root directory of the roboRIO Toolkit installer and follow the instructions on the screen to install this product.
You must manually install the USBLAN driver before using the roboRIO with Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Complete the following steps to install the USBLAN driver:
| Note Before completing the following steps, make sure that you have downloaded and installed the KB 931125 package from Microsoft. For more information, refer to the Workarounds and Recommendations section of KB 65O8AH55, Why Are National Instruments Installers Failing on Windows XP and Server 2003 Machines?. |
The USBLAN driver appears under Network adapters in the Windows Device Manager.
Visit ni.com/security to view and subscribe to receive security notifications about National Instruments products. Visit ni.com/critical-updates for information about critical updates from National Instruments.
You can access the software and documentation known issues list online. Refer to the National Instruments website for an up-to-date list of known issues in the LabVIEW roboRIO Toolkit.
Visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code exkvqg for information about using the UART and the RS-232 channels on the roboRIO.
The roboRIO Toolkit provides the LabVIEW for roboRIO environment to allow you to easily access roboRIO-specific features and focus on developing roboRIO applications.
You can use the Choose Environment Settings dialog box to change your LabVIEW environment. To display this dialog box, select Tools»Choose Environment from LabVIEW.
Refer to the LabVIEW Help, accessible by selecting Help»LabVIEW Help from LabVIEW, for information about the roboRIO Toolkit.
Select Help»Find Examples from LabVIEW to launch the NI Example Finder. LabVIEW examples for the roboRIO Toolkit are located in the labview\examples\roboRIO directory. You can modify an example VI to fit an application, or you can copy and paste from one or more examples into a VI that you create.
You can automate the installation of most NI products using command-line arguments to suppress some or all of the installer user interface and dialog boxes. However, starting with the August 2012 releases (products using NI Installers version 3.1 or later), you may need to perform additional steps before or during a silent installation of NI software.
If the NI product you are installing uses Microsoft .NET 4.0, the .NET installer may run before any NI software installs and may require a reboot before the installation of NI software begins. To avoid a .NET reboot, install .NET 4.0 separately before you install NI software.
For more information about automating the installation of NI products, refer to the following KnowledgeBase articles:
When you install National Instruments software on Microsoft Windows 8.x, you will notice a few additional tiles in the Apps view, including shortcuts to NI application software products such as NI LabVIEW, Measurement & Automation Explorer (NI MAX), and NI Launcher.
NI Launcher helps you find and launch installed NI products. It provides you with a method of finding NI products similar to the Start menu in previous versions of Microsoft Windows. To use NI Launcher, click the NI Launcher tile in the Apps view. NI Launcher launches the desktop and opens a menu containing a list of NI products. Click any NI product to launch it.
Note NI MAX does not appear as a desktop shortcut when installed on Microsoft Windows 8.x. You can launch NI MAX either from the Apps view or from within NI Launcher.
For convenience, you can pin your most-used NI applications, such as MAX, to either the Start screen or the Taskbar on the desktop, as necessary:
| Current Application | Icon Location | Pin to Action |
|---|---|---|
| Windows 8.x Desktop | Desktop Taskbar | Right-click application and select Pin to Taskbar |
| Windows 8.x Desktop | Start screen | Right-click application and select Pin to Start |
| Windows 8.x Start screen | Desktop Taskbar | Right-click application and select Pin to taskbar from the menu bar on the bottom of the screen |
If you want to find a particular application or related files, such as documentation files, from the Start screen, you can access all installed files from the Apps view. To get to the Apps view, right-click anywhere on the Start screen and select All apps (Windows 8.0) or click the down arrow on the bottom left of the screen (Windows 8.1).
For more information about NI support for Windows 8.x, visit ni.com/windows8.
National Instruments LabVIEW roboRIO Toolkit will drop support for Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 as of July 1, 2016. Versions of the LabVIEW roboRIO Toolkit that ship after July 1, 2016 will not install or run on Windows Vista, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003. For detailed information about NI application software product life cycles, visit ni.com/info and enter one of the following Info Codes:
| Product | Info Code |
|---|---|
| LabVIEW | lifecycle |
| LabWindows™/CVI™ | cvi_lifecycle |
| Measurement Studio | mstudiolifecycle |
| TestStand | tslcp |
| DIAdem | ddlcp |
| SignalExpress | selcp |
| VeriStand | nivslifecycle |
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