LabVIEW 2020 Readme for Windows

March 2020

This file contains important information about LabVIEW 2020 for Windows, including system requirements, installation instructions, known issues, and a partial list of bugs fixed for LabVIEW 2020.

Refer to the NI website for the latest information about LabVIEW.

Refer to the labview\readme directory for readme files about LabVIEW add-ons, such as modules and toolkits.

System Requirements

Installation Instructions

Product Security and Critical Updates

LabVIEW 2020 (64-bit)

Known Issues

Bug Fixes

Patch Details

Accessing the Help

Finding Examples

Automating the Installation of NI Products

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.1

LabVIEW Drops Support for Windows 7 (32- and 64-Bit), Windows Server 2008 R2, and All 32-Bit Windows Operating Systems in 2021

End-of-Life Products

Legal Information


System Requirements

LabVIEW 2020 has the following requirements:

Windows Run-Time Engine Development Environment
Processor1 Pentium 4M/Celeron 866 MHz (or equivalent) or later (32-bit)
Pentium 4 G1 (or equivalent) or later (64-bit)
Pentium 4M (or equivalent) or later (32-bit)
Pentium 4 G1 (or equivalent) or later (64-bit)
RAM 256 MB 1 GB
Screen Resolution 1024 x 768 pixels 1024 x 768 pixels
Operating System Windows 10 (version 1909)/8.1 Update 12/7 SP13
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R22
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP13
Windows 10 (version 1909)/8.1 Update 12/7 SP13
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R22
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP13
Disk Space 620 MB 5 GB (includes default drivers)
Color Palette N/A LabVIEW and the LabVIEW Help contain 16-bit color graphics. LabVIEW requires a minimum color palette setting of 16-bit color.
Temporary Files Directory N/A LabVIEW uses a directory for storing temporary files. NI recommends that you have several megabytes of disk space available for this temporary directory.
Adobe Reader N/A You must have Adobe Reader 7.0 or later installed to search PDF versions of all LabVIEW manuals.
1 LabVIEW and LabVIEW Run-Time Engine require processors of the Pentium 4M/G1 generation or later, which are capable of executing SSE2 instructions.

2 NI software installs VC2015 Runtime and .NET 4.6.2. Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 require Microsoft updates to support these items. Refer to Microsoft KB2919442 and KB2919355 for more information about how to install these updates.

3 NI software is signed with a SHA-256 certificate. Windows 7 SP1, Windows Embedded Standard 7 SP1, and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 require Microsoft updates to support SHA-256. Refer to Microsoft KB3033929 for more information about how to install this security update.

Note
  • You cannot access LabVIEW using a Guest account on Windows.
  • In 2016 LabVIEW dropped support for Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and installations of Windows 7 without any service packs. LabVIEW 2020 will not install or run on an unsupported OS. You cannot deploy or distribute applications that use LabVIEW 2020 to an unsupported OS. Additionally, after installing LabVIEW 2020, you cannot use any installers built on this computer with any version of LabVIEW, LabWindows™/CVI™, NI TestStand™, or Measurement Studio™ on an unsupported OS. For more information about the changes to our OS support for 2016, visit ni.com/r/OSSupport2016.
  • Support for Windows 32-bit operating systems may require disabling physical address extension (PAE). To learn how this might affect your system and what actions you might need to take, visit ni.com/r/PAESupport.
  • Refer to LabVIEW Drops Support for Windows 7 (32- and 64-Bit), Windows Server 2008 R2, and All 32-Bit Windows Operating Systems in 2021 for information about future OS support.

Installation Instructions

NI installs software using NI Package Manager. If you do not already have NI software installed, LabVIEW installs NI Package Manager to handle the installation of your NI software. Visit ni.com/r/NIPMDownload to download NI Package Manager. Refer to the NI Package Manager Manual for more information about installing, removing, and upgrading NI software using NI Package Manager.

Notes

  • If Windows Update is enabled, the installation process might hang if Windows Update interferes with the installation of Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Run-Time. Visit ni.com/r/exjq43 for more information and steps to resolve this issue.
  • If you purchased this product with an NI Software Suite or NI Product Bundle, use the installation media that shipped with your purchase to install this product.
  • When prompted, enter the serial number to activate LabVIEW. Your serial number can be found at ni.com/myproducts. If you are managing your license with a volume license server, you should receive your volume license file by email.

If you install software using the LabVIEW Platform media, insert the LabVIEW Platform media and follow the onscreen instructions to install LabVIEW, modules, toolkits, and drivers. When prompted, log in to your NI User Account to activate your NI products. If you are managing your license with a volume license server, you should receive your volume license file by email.

Are you upgrading from a previous version of LabVIEW?

Refer to the LabVIEW Upgrade Notes for information about protecting existing VIs and projects before installing a new version of LabVIEW, as well as upgrade and compatibility issues and a complete list of new features in LabVIEW 2020.

Changes to selection rules for named Bundle and Unbundle nodes inside malleable VIs

The rules for how LabVIEW selects cluster elements when you use a Bundle By Name function, Unbundle By Name function, or Unbundle / Bundle Elements Border Node have improved. The improvements may cause existing code to behave differently than you expect when you use these nodes inside a malleable VI. Visit ni.com/r/eakjbu for more information about how these changes impact existing code.

Product Security and Critical Updates

Visit ni.com/security to view and subscribe to receive security notifications about NI products. Visit ni.com/critical-updates for information about critical updates from NI.

LabVIEW 2020 (64-bit)

Use the LabVIEW Platform media to install modules and toolkits supported by LabVIEW 2020 (32-bit) and LabVIEW 2020 (64-bit). When run on Windows (64-bit), LabVIEW (64-bit) provides access to more memory than a 32-bit operating system or a 32-bit application can provide. LabVIEW (64-bit) is available in English only.

Supported Hardware

Refer to the NI website for information about drivers compatible with LabVIEW 2020 (64-bit). For GPIB devices, you must use at least NI-488.2 2.6 for Windows. Refer to the specific hardware documentation for more information about compatibility with LabVIEW (64-bit).

Supported Modules and Toolkits

LabVIEW 2020 (64-bit) supports a limited number of modules and toolkits. The following table compares the modules and toolkits supported by LabVIEW (32-bit) and LabVIEW (64-bit).

Product LabVIEW 2020 (32-bit) LabVIEW 2020 (64-bit)
Advanced Signal Processing Toolkit
Control Design and Simulation Module
1
Database Connectivity Toolkit
Datalogging and Supervisory Control Module
Desktop Execution Trace Toolkit for Windows
Digital Filter Design Toolkit
FPGA Module
MathScript Module
2
Real-Time Module
Report Generation Toolkit for Microsoft Office
Sound and Vibration Toolkit
Unit Test Framework Toolkit
VI Analyzer Toolkit
Vision Development Module
1 The Control Design and Simulation Module (64-bit) does not support the System Identification Assistant, Control Design Assistant, and real-time targets.

2 The MathScript Module (64-bit) does not support the libraries class of MathScript Module functions.

Refer to the readme of each product for more information about 32-bit and 64-bit support, system requirements, installation instructions, and activation. For information about products not listed in the previous table, refer to the user documentation of those products.

Known Issues

You can access the software and documentation known issues list online. Visit LabVIEW 2020 Known Issues for an up-to-date list of known issues.

Bug Fixes

The following items are the IDs and titles of a subset of issues fixed in LabVIEW 2020. This is not an exhaustive list of issues fixed in the current version of LabVIEW. If you have a Bug ID, you can search this list to validate that the issue has been fixed.

ID Fixed Issue
917628 LabVIEW Runtime Engine encounters Worker Thread Limit when using web services on Linux RT-based cRIO.
931175 EXE including 'Std Deviation and Variance' VI is unloadable.
984819 Incorrect behavior when using a Boolean control from the System palette.
984834 LabVIEW Application Builder fails to build a Source Distribution on Windows when using some specific vi.lib VIs that contain non-Windows components.
984861 When making multiple calls to Python function in a For Loop, the Python execution treats the passed data as a list, rather than a NumPy array.
985551 Hovering over an override method in the Project Explorer does not show parent class description if the VI has empty description.
985552 Special characters (\r, \n, etc.) are not correctly converted to JSON when using LabVIEW Web services.
985554 Calling a Channel Write VI by reference in a loop results in a compiler error.

Patch Details

Visit LabVIEW 2020 Patch Details for detailed information about all patches available for LabVIEW 2020 and issues fixed in each patch.

Accessing the Help

Refer to the LabVIEW Help, accessible by selecting Help»LabVIEW Help from LabVIEW, for information about LabVIEW 2020.

Finding Examples

Select Help»Find Examples from LabVIEW to launch the NI Example Finder. 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.

Automating the Installation of NI Products

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.

If the NI product you are installing uses Microsoft .NET 4.6.2, 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 4.6.2 separately before you install NI software.

For more information about automating the installation of NI products, refer to Automating an Installer in the NI Package Manager manual.

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10

Microsoft Windows 10 is the latest version of the Windows operating system and features significant changes compared to previous versions. Windows 10 introduces several new capabilities and also combines features from both Windows 7 and Windows 8. For more information about NI support for Windows 10, visit ni.com/windows10.

Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.1

When you install NI software on Microsoft Windows 8.1, 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. For more information about NI support for Windows 8.1, visit ni.com/windows8.

LabVIEW Drops Support for Windows 7 (32- and 64-Bit), Windows Server 2008 R2, and All 32-Bit Windows Operating Systems in 2021

LabVIEW will drop support for Windows 7 (32- and 64-bit), Windows Server 2008 R2, and all 32-bit Windows operating systems starting in 2021. Versions of this product that ship after May 1, 2021, may not install or execute correctly on these operating systems. For detailed information about NI operating system support, visit ni.com/r/win32bitsupport.

End-of-Life Products

The LabVIEW Robotics Module, LabVIEW SoftMotion Module, and SignalExpress have reached the end of their product life cycle.

The following table contains the end-of-life (EOL) milestones for these products. You can access support for these products through the last order date at ni.com/support. After the last order date, NI continues to offer technical support through the end-of-support date via online discussion forums only at forums.ni.com.

Product Last Release Last Order Date End of Support Date
LabVIEW Robotics Module 2019 June 30, 2020 June 2023
LabVIEW SoftMotion Module 2018 June 30, 2020 June 2021
SignalExpress 2015 July 31, 2020 July 2024

Legal Information

Copyright

© 2004–2020 National Instruments. All rights reserved.

Under the copyright laws, this publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storing in an information retrieval system, or translating, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of National Instruments Corporation.

NI respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. NI software is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Where NI software may be used to reproduce software or other materials belonging to others, you may use NI software only to reproduce materials that you may reproduce in accordance with the terms of any applicable license or other legal restriction.

End-User License Agreements and Third-Party Legal Notices

You can find end-user license agreements (EULAs) and third-party legal notices in the following locations after installation:

  • Notices are located in the <National Instruments>\_Legal Information and <National Instruments> directories.
  • EULAs are located in the <National Instruments>\Shared\MDF\Legal\license directory.
  • Review <National Instruments>\_Legal Information.txt for information on including legal information in installers built with NI products.

U.S. Government Restricted Rights

If you are an agency, department, or other entity of the United States Government ("Government"), the use, duplication, reproduction, release, modification, disclosure or transfer of the technical data included in this manual is governed by the Restricted Rights provisions under Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.227-14 for civilian agencies and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement Section 252.227-7014 and 252.227-7015 for military agencies.

IVI Foundation Copyright Notice

Content from the IVI specifications reproduced with permission from the IVI Foundation.

The IVI Foundation and its member companies make no warranty of any kind with regard to this material, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The IVI Foundation and its member companies shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.

Trademarks

Refer to the NI Trademarks and Logo Guidelines at ni.com/trademarks for information on NI trademarks. Other product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

Patents

For patents covering the NI products/technology, refer to the appropriate location: Help»Patents in your software, the patents.txt file on your media, or the NI Patent Notice at ni.com/patents.

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