National Instruments Product Compatibility for Microsoft Windows 10

In general, existing Windows 7 and Windows 8 applications should continue to function in Windows 10, but hardware drivers and development environments may need to be updated to the August 2015 release or newer.

Windows 10 reintroduces the Start menu, which changes how you access NI products. Top-level shortcuts, such as MAX, are listed under the alphabetized N section of the All Apps menu. All secondary shortcuts are under the National Instruments section of the menu.

As with Windows 8, NI software will not operate as a Windows Store app and any application created with NI software will not be able to operate as a Windows Store app. This is because the operating system limits necessary access to the Win32 API.

Silverlight Support 

Some NI components require Microsoft Silverlight to function properly. The default browser in Windows 10, Microsoft Edge, does not support Silverlight. Google Chrome also no longer supports Silverlight. Windows 10 includes Internet Explorer 11 for backward compatibility, which supports Silverlight. All Silverlight pages launched from MAX will use Internet Explorer, but Silverlight-based pages launched manually using a default browser that does not support Silverlight, such as Edge or Chrome, will fail to open. For more information about using Silverlight-based pages on Windows 10, refer to KnowledgeBase Remote Front Panels, NI Network Browser, and the Web Interface (WIF) Do Not Work in Google Chrome Version 42 or Higher

Fast Startup Issues

NI strongly encourages its customers to disable fast startup. For more information, refer to KnowledgeBase Hardware Not Detected or Not Functional in Windows Due to Fast Startup.

Repairing NI Software After Upgrading

Performing a repair on NI software after upgrading to Windows 10 can result in a loss of access to hardware associated with repaired drivers. To restore the NI device drivers to a working state, perform a second repair on the affected device drivers. This was an issue originally discovered when upgrading from Windows 8.0 to 8.1 that also applies to Windows 10 upgrades.

• In the table below, the column titled 'Windows 10 64-bit (Using 32-bit Software)' indicates the first version of 32-bit software that will run within the Windows on Windows (WOW64) emulation layer.
• In the tables below, Not supported means the end user cannot use 32-bit NI software in their 64-bit software scenarios. Not applicable means the software bitness for that version of the operating system does not exist or is not a valid configuration. For example, MAX or LabWindows™/CVI™ development environments do not have 64-bit versions of the executable, but will work on 64-bit Windows 10. A 64-bit program will not work on a 32-bit operating system.

What is the difference between Windows 10 32-bit and Windows 10 64-bit?

Windows 10 32-bit can run on either x86 or x64 hardware. Similar to Windows XP 32-bit, Windows 10 32-bit provides access only to 32-bit addresses. As a result, even though Windows 10 32-bit will run on x64 hardware, it is limited to using 4 gigabytes of RAM. Windows 10 32-bit cannot run 64-bit versions of drivers or software designed to run natively on 64-bit operating systems.

Windows 10 64-bit can be installed only on x64 hardware. This version of the operating system allows software to use 64-bit addresses to access hardware and can therefore access much larger memory spaces.  In order to run successfully on Windows 10 64-bit, all drivers must have native 64-bit support. However, most 32-bit software applications can run within a Windows 10 64-bit emulation layer.

For more detailed information on the difference between Windows 32-bit and 64-bit, see Using National Instruments Products on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows.

Software

Because Windows 10 release date was very close to National Instruments August 2015 software release date, August 2015 releases were not documented with respect to Windows 10 support. Based on testing after Windows 10 release, the following National Instruments software packages are compatible with the listed versions of Windows 10 32-bit and Windows 10 64-bit. As of 2016, all new versions and service pack updates of National Instruments software document their compatibility with Windows 10 in their Readme files. If there is any question about the compatibility of a piece of software with the 64-bit versions of Windows and LabVIEW, please refer to the Readme for that release.

Add-ons and Toolkits

The following National Instruments Add-ons and Toolkits are compatible with the listed versions Windows 10 32-bit and Windows 10 64-bit: 

¹ The LabVIEW FPGA Module is partially supported on Windows 10. However, the Xilinx tools used for your NI FPGA device might not be. For details, refer to LabVIEW FPGA Module Compatibility with Windows 10.

² NI LabVIEW PID and Fuzzy Logic Toolkit was included with base LabVIEW beginning with LabVIEW 2014.

³ This software version only supports Windows 10 when used with LabVIEW 2015 SP1.

Hardware Drivers

The following National Instruments Hardware Drivers are compatible with the listed versions of Windows 10 32-bit and Windows 10 64-bit.

¹ The NI-Digital Pattern Driver only supports deployment on 32-bit versions of Windows and does not support development on 32-bit Windows.

• National Instruments Product Compatibility for Microsoft Windows 7
• LabVIEW and Microsoft Windows Compatibility
• NI-DAQmx First Available Hardware Support