Archived:Install NI LabVIEW Student Edition Using Windows Installer

The following document explains how to install LabVIEW Student Edition using the traditional Windows installer. This will likely be installation media that is in DVD format or received from an Academic site administrator and does not require the use of NI Package Manager. 

This experience is tailored for this installer suite, but a similar experience exists for other software installations

Note: The last available version of LabVIEW Student Edition was released in Spring 2020. For alternatives to the LabVIEW Student Edition, consider using LabVIEW Community Edition, which is free for non-commercial use.

 

Considerations

Installation Order

Because the Student Edition and Student Edition Software Suite are in fact suites, they bundle together several installers and install the software in the proper order automatically. If however, you were installing these products individually, or later decide to install other software, you would need to note the installation order.
 

Downloading LabVIEW Student Using NIPM

If you have downloaded a newer version of LabVIEW Student Edition, you may be prompted to use NI Package Manager to complete the installation. Follow the prompts in NI Package Manager to complete installation and skip the Install Software section below; then, if applicable, continue to the Install Hardware Drivers (optional) section. Principles of installation order, selecting software to be installed, and next steps provided in this document are still applicable even if using NI Package Manager, although the exact steps and images presented below will not align perfectly.
 

Install Software

1. Download the version and bitness of software you need from LabVIEW Student Edition Suite or obtain the physical media from your site administrator.
   • If you have downloaded the software from an offline installer or from a network location, locate the installation files and double-click setup.exe.
   • If you have a physical DVD, insert the LabVIEW Student Edition or Student Edition Software Suite DVD into the DVD drive of your PC. If Auto-Play is enabled, the installer should automatically open and begin to initialize. If not, locate the DVD and right-click and select Explore. Double-click on Setup.exe.

2. Allow the installer to initialize and then select Next.

3. Select I only want to evaluate products. Select Next.
   • Note: You can activate the software with your serial number after completing the installation as discussed in the subsequent tutorial: Activating NI Software Products

4. Select the products that you would like to install. To add a product, left-click and select Install. To remove a product, left-click and select Do not install. Select Next after selecting all desired software.

5. [Optional] Check for Updates for your software before installing.
   • Depending on when you install your software, it is possible that there have been updates released for your products. At this point, you can choose to contact NI to see if any updates exist by selecting the checkbox that says "Search for important messages and updates ...".  This is not required, and can also be done using the NI Update Service after installation. To proceed without doing this, deselect the checkbox. Select Next.

6. You can modify the installation path, but it is not recommended. Select Next to proceed without changing the default path.

7. You must read and agree to the License Agreements—two windows contain license agreements. For each window, select I accept and then select Next to proceed.

8. Before you proceed, ensure that all desired products to be installed are listed accordingly. Select Next to proceed.

9. The installation will now begin. During the installation, the individual installers for each product will be invoked and appear as seen below:
   
10. After all products have been installed, the installation summary will be displayed. Select Next to proceed.
11. The installation is now complete. At this point, reboot your machine before using any newly installed software. This ensures the proper keys are written to the registry to allow the software to function correctly. 

If you wish to install hardware drivers to allow you to program hardware within the LabVIEW development environment, proceed to the following section, Install Hardware Drivers. If you do not need to install hardware drivers, proceed to the Launch LabVIEW section.
 

Install Hardware Drivers (optional)

After installing LabVIEW Student Edition and any modules or toolkits, it is now the correct time to install hardware drivers.  

You can obtain the hardware drivers to use with LabVIEW in two ways: (1) from the Device Drivers DVD or (2) from individual installers. You can obtain the Device Driver DVD from your software administrator if you are on a campus that has an Academic Volume License (AVL), or you can download the individual driver that you need online (recommended). 

Listed below are three of the most popular drivers:

1. NI-DAQmx provides access to the large majority of NI multifunction data acquisition devices such as NI CompactDAQ, NI myDAQ, and the NI Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite (NI ELVIS).
2. NI-ELVISmx  includes the NI-DAQmx driver and also provides a suite of software instruments to use with an NI ELVIS or NI myDAQ device.
3. NI-RIO provides access to the NI CompactRIO and NI Single-Board RIO devices.

There are also many other drivers available to download, such as VISA, serial, and 488.2 (GPIB).

After you have downloaded or obtained the drivers that you wish to install, run the setup.exe file for each and proceed through the installation. After the successful installation of all drivers, restart your computer one final time.
 

Launch LabVIEW

After successfully restarting your computer, you are ready to launch LabVIEW. Navigate to Start»All Programs»National Instruments»LabVIEW <version>»LabVIEW <version> to open LabVIEW.

 

Next Steps

• When launching LabVIEW for the first time, you are prompted that your software is currently in evaluation mode and can be used for free for a limited amount of time. The subsequent tutorial, Activating NI Software Products, discusses how to properly activate your newly installed LabVIEW Student Edition software.
  • You will need to locate your serial number for activation.
  • You may also choose only to bypass activation and only evaluate the product at this time by selecting Launch LabVIEW.
• After launching LabVIEW, you may want to familiarize yourself with basic LabVIEW principles and coding techniques. Some examples, tutorials, and videos are available to get you started with using NI tools .