From Friday, April 19th (11:00 PM CDT) through Saturday, April 20th (2:00 PM CDT), 2024, ni.com will undergo system upgrades that may result in temporary service interruption.
We appreciate your patience as we improve our online experience.
From Friday, April 19th (11:00 PM CDT) through Saturday, April 20th (2:00 PM CDT), 2024, ni.com will undergo system upgrades that may result in temporary service interruption.
We appreciate your patience as we improve our online experience.
January 2022
This file contains installation instructions and compatibility information for NI-VISA 21.5.
You can find more release information on ni.com.
If you plan to use LabVIEW NXG, refer to LabVIEW NXG Support and Considerations.
Product Security and Critical Updates
LabVIEW NXG Support and Considerations
Automating the Installation of NI Products
Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10
NI-VISA is the NI implementation of the Virtual Instrument Software Architecture (VISA), a standard for configuring, programming, and troubleshooting instrumentation systems comprising GPIB, VXI, PXI, Serial, Ethernet, and/or USB interfaces.
NI-VISA 21.5 for Windows supports the following platforms:
While this distribution targets all of these platforms, you can run setup.exe only on the Windows variants.
Note NI-VISA no longer supports Windows Vista/XP/7/8.1, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012, or any 32-bit Windows operating system. NI-VISA 21.5 will not install or run on an unsupported OS. You cannot deploy or distribute applications that use NI-VISA 21.5 to an unsupported OS. Additionally, after installing NI-VISA 21.5 on a supported OS computer, you cannot create any installers containing any version of LabVIEW, LabWindows™/CVI™, NI TestStand™, or Measurement Studio for an unsupported OS computer.
For detailed information about NI operating system support, visit http://www.ni.com/r/win32bitsupport.
NI Software will drop support for Phar Lap ETS Real-Time Operating System starting in 2022. Versions of this product that ship after May 1, 2022, may not install or execute correctly on this operating system. For high-level information on the support roadmap for Phar Lap and its replacement, NI Linux Real-Time, please visit ni.com/r/xf35k1. To find out what hardware is supported on PXI controllers running NI Linux Real-Time, please visit ni.com/r/b7g5wi.
NI-VISA currently supports the frameworks and programming languages shown in the following table.
| Windows 10 Server 2019 Server 2016 | LabVIEW RT (Phar Lap ETS) | NI Linux Real-Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPIB | ✔ | ✔ | ✔1 | |
| Serial | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| PXI/PCI | ✔ | ✔ | ✔1 | |
| TCPIP | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Remote Client | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Remote Server | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| ENET Serial | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| USB | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| VISA Interactive Control | ✔ | |||
| NI I/O Trace | ✔ | |||
| Driver Development Wizard | ✔ | |||
| 1Support limited to PXI and PXIe targets. | ||||
Notes
NI-VISA 21.5 supports the following application software versions, including service packs. If you are not using NI application software, refer to Microsoft Visual Studio Support.
| Application Software | Versions Supported by NI-VISA |
|---|---|
| LabVIEW | 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 |
| LabVIEW NXG | 5.0, 5.1 |
| LabWindows/CVI | 2017 and later |
| Measurement Studio | 2019 and later |
If you are using the IVI-compliant NI-VISA .NET Class Library, the .NET 4.6.2 Framework (minimum) is required. You can use the NI-VISA .NET Class Library with the Visual C# or Visual Basic .NET programming languages in any Visual Studio version that can target the .NET 4.0 Framework or later. You can use the NI-VISA .NET Class Library in 32-bit or 64-bit applications.
Note: The Measurement Studio VisaNS .NET Class Library is being deprecated and superseded by an IVI-compliant NI-VISA .NET Class Library. Refer to the New Features section for more information.
You can install all of your LabVIEW products—including NI-VISA—using the LabVIEW 2021 platform media.
To request additional LabVIEW platform media, visit ni.com/r/media.
Note
Before you install NI-VISA 21.5, NI recommends that you uninstall any versions of VISA prior to NI-VISA 2.0.1.
After uninstalling NI-VISA, some DLLs and executables may remain in the NI-VISA directories. To complete the uninstall process, you must restart your machine.
Note: The uninstaller application does not notify you when rebooting is necessary. If you plan to reinstall NI-VISA, you always should reboot the machine after running the uninstaller.
NI-VISA now works with Agilent/HP GPIB and VXI controller cards. To use this feature, go into MAX, select Tools»NI-VISA»VISA Options, choose the Passports tab, and enable the NiVisaTulip.dll Passport. NI-VISA automatically finds and accesses any GPIB or VXI devices. However, NI-VISA does not configure the Agilent/HP hardware; you still must do that with the Agilent/HP I/O Config utility.
If you have both NI and Agilent/HP controllers in the same system, you must configure the cards at different system addresses, such as GPIB0 and GPIB1. If both vendors try to use the same interface address, NI-VISA reports an error from viFindRsrc or VISA Find Resources.
(Windows 10) If you generate an INF file using the NI-VISA Driver Wizard, you must create and digitally sign a Windows Catalog (.cat) file before you can install the INF file on a Windows 10 machine. For more information about digitally signing a .cat file for Windows 10, visit ni.com/r/infwin8.
For more information about creating and signing catalog files, Microsoft has a Kernel-Mode Code Signing Walkthrough whitepaper that describes the details of this process. The generated catalog file should reference only the INF file.
Visit ni.com/security to view and subscribe to receive security notifications about NI products. For information about critical updates from NI, refer to Available Critical and Security Updates for NI Software.
Added support for LabVIEW NXG 5.1
Added support for LabVIEW NXG 5.0
Added support for LabVIEW NXG 4.0
Refer to the NI-VISA Help, accessible from LabVIEW by selecting Help>>LabVIEW Help, for information about NI-VISA.
Select Help>>Find Examples from LabVIEW to launch the NI Example Finder. LabVIEW examples for NI-VISA are located in the labview\examples\Instrument IO\VISA 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.
The following sections detail considerations for using LabVIEW NXG with NI-VISA.
Software support for LabVIEW NXG differs in the following ways:
NI automates LabVIEW NXG installation using a package manager. Complete the following steps to install NI-VISA for LabVIEW NXG.
Refer to the NI Package Manager Manual for more information about installing, removing, and upgrading NI software using NI Package Manager.
View context help in LabVIEW by pressing <Ctrl-H> and hovering over an object.
Search for items using the search bar in the upper right corner of the LabVIEW window. You can also view context help for the search results.
Additional documentation is available online at ni.com/manuals.
Launch LabVIEW and click the Learning tab.
LabVIEW lessons are located in the Lessons tab, and LabVIEW Examples are located in the Examples tab. Follow the instructions in the lessons and examples.
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.
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.
Copyright
© 1995–2022 National Instruments Corporation. 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:
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.
374899P-01