Are you using LabVIEW on Windows Vista?

[Jim Kring]

If you have thoughts, concerns, or feedback about running LabVIEW on Windows Vista, please share them with us. I'm interested to know what the issues are and how to solve them.

Thanks,

[i2dx]

If you have thoughts, concerns, or feedback about running LabVIEW on Windows Vista, please share them with us. I'm interested to know what the issues are and how to solve them.

Thanks,

I have general concerns agains VISTA. I don't like this DRM b******t, threrefore I am planing to use XP als long as possible.

[Ton Plomp]

First of all, our company desktop computers are still win2k, probably going onto XP in may.

We the lucky ones with laptops have XP, but the chance that I'm getting a new one within 2 years 20%?

On a side note NI has a website about Vista.

Ton

[LAVA 1.0 Content]

In general I am never looking forward to upgrade my OS when the one I have gives satisfaction but I read in the papers that Vista is getting close to MacOS X (which IMO is a good idea) so I'll looking over microsoft fan's shoulder when they upgrade... just in case

From a professionnal viewpoint, this decision is not mine... the IT doesn't seem to be willing to push us to vista too fast, I guess anyway we would need a serious upgrade in terms of CPU, RAM, GPU, etc...

+ for some reason Vista's price almost doubles when crossing the ocean... WHY ?

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

If you have thoughts, concerns, or feedback about running LabVIEW on Windows Vista, please share them with us. I'm interested to know what the issues are and how to solve them.

Thanks,

Besides that some of our larger corporate customers only changed to XP in the last year or so I do not see why I should change for myself just yet. My notebook does work for at least another year or two, driver support will be limited for some time, and Windows without service pack hasn't been running on any of my computers since Microsoft introduced that phenomen somewhere around Windows NT 3.5 (when I actually did most of my daily administrative work on a Mac IIci).

So I guess I will be using Vista when I will get a new computer but not before that.

Rolf Kalbermatter

[Albert Geven]

Hi Jim

I guess that VISTA will be at least 2 years from our place except for those guys who need to build a driver for it.

We moved to XP 3 years ago, and although is runs slower and slower because of the security updates it still functions well enough.

(maybe I'm typing slower today)

[Donald]

I would like to use Vista Pro at home to be prepared when customers start to switch or are forced to switch because of an obsolete notice for WinXP... I got a confirmation from an embedded PC supplier that OEM WinXP Pro will be available at least until end 2008. The hardened security is also more than welcome but yes I expect similar problems as on Win XP if your are not administrator (user can not scan or print...was a famous one for one of the biggest InktJet Scanner suppliers).

An interesting feature (yes you have to look hard for an extra pro feature...) in Win Vista Pro I would like to test is the "Shadow Copy" feature. I've not seen much about this feature in Windows Vista reviews.

This feature promises to save different version of a file. This sounds good if you do not use Source Code control and have the bad luck of corrupting a VI or worse a complete LLB.

I also expect a lot of problems to install/use existing applications if the active user is NOT an administrator. Another reason to start preparing. (and keeping Windows XP just in case)

[pallen]

Most of my LabVIEW programming is done for new machines. Typically each new machine is outfitted with a new Dell PC. So whenever they start shipping with Vista is when we'll likely start using it.

--

Patrick Allen

[xtal]

My current company recently just switched from Win2000 to WinXP and have absolutely no plans to switch to Vista for a long time. When I did some beta Vista testing at NI, there were lots of installer, registry, and permission problems. Enough issues that I'm happy I won't be using it anytime soon.

[Wayne Smith]

+ for some reason Vista's price almost doubles when crossing the ocean... WHY ?

That's interesting. Perhaps Microsoft is recovering costs from their legal battles with the EU. May be the shipping costs are high because fuel is more expensive in Europe (VISTA is supposed to be a BIG upgrade, ha ha). Sometimes I just don't under the economics of things; like why do Americans get prescripition drugs cheaper by going to Canada?

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

+ for some reason Vista's price almost doubles when crossing the ocean... WHY ?

That's interesting. Perhaps Microsoft is recovering costs from their legal battles with the EU.

That would make sense! "Tax the bastards that can not appreciate our fully bundled lock into one provider packages".

You also need to consider the extra testing necessary for customized CDs for the European market.

Or wait it is a way of driving off European businesses to use Linux more, since they are going to do that anyway, so get from them what you can as long as you can!

Rolf Kalbermatter

[Val Brown]

For me the pressure will come to migrate as new computers become increasingly more difficult to find with XP installed. Until then -- and until I'm satisfied with the stability of Vista -- I plan to stay as far away from it as possible. That's mostly because of the stability issues, as well as the general issues that come with migrating code to a new OS.

[Steve Mate]

Any reports from someone using Vista?

[Jim Kring]

Any reports from someone using Vista?

Earlier this week, I installed LabVIEW 7.1.1 on Vista "Home Basic" edition and was able to also install VIPM without any significant issues. I installed/ran both as administrator, just to be sure I wouldn't run into any permissions snags. However, I did have some trouble with a driver for a CAN bus adaptor, so I had do "upgrade" the system to Windows XP Pro.

Let me tell you, Vista is a pig (with respect to memory and CPU usage). But, the UI is pretty slick. It didn't take me much trouble to get comfortable with it.

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

The Impact of Vista on Test (EE Article):

http://evaluationengineering.com/archive/a...7/0307imact.asp

[Amelia]

QUOTE (Steve Mate @ Feb 7 2007, 11:19 PM)

Any reports from someone using Vista?

I just recently upgraded to Vista for the sole purpose of testing our current LabVIEW 7.1 software on the new OS. Our current software actually works quite well with the virtualstore, but we will eventually have to move away from that for future upgrades. A word of warning for developers working in XP, don't allow the program to save anything to C:\Program Files. This will cause compatibility issues when upgrading to Vista. The only other small problem that I have had is in the color and design of the front panel. We used the system default colors when we created the programs in XP. These system defaults are different in Vista so our programs look really funny at the moment with colors that don't quite work together.

I'm interested to know if anyone else has had other problems moving old software to Vista.

[Karl Rony]

I'm using Vista Home Premium with LabVIEW 8.2.1 and 8.5.1. I can get 8.5.1 to crash every once and a while, but I'm not sure who to blame - Microsoft or NI. I'm not thrilled with how fast Vista runs, but it has enough nice features to keep me from trying to downgrade to XP. I remember the days when I thought Win2000 was great and I wasn't sure about upgrading to XP.

[lvb]

After using Vista for 6 months, I am downgrading to Windows XP.

1st issue: I have to buy a new scanner and webcam that was "compatible" with Vista

2nd issue: General stability. Vista would seem to crash and "lock-up" when doing simple tasks like using Outlook and Firefox. I have become intolerant of the "spinning circle" (the new hourglass)

3rd issue: Performance. I really don't see any performance improvements in Vista. You need a ridiculous amount of RAM and HD space to run the operating system.

On my laptop, I actually switched from Vista Home to Ubuntu and find it easier. Ehem, LabVIEW runs on Linux also!

Just my 2 cents...

[BrokenArrow]

QUOTE (Amelia @ May 5 2008, 12:52 PM)

....system defaults are different in Vista.....

I found this on NI in regards to an issue I was having when switching between XP and Vista computers...

Because the default fonts on Windows Vista are different than the default fonts on previous versions of Windows, you might notice cosmetic issues, such as overlapping or truncated text strings, in VIs and LabVIEW dialog boxes. To correct this problem, change the theme of the operating system to Windows Classic in the Theme Settings dialog box and then restart LabVIEW. Select Start»Control Panel»Appearance and Personalization and click Change the theme to display the Theme Settings dialog box.

-Richard

[crelf]

QUOTE (BrokenArrow @ May 31 2008, 12:35 PM)

Because the default fonts on Windows Vista are different than the default fonts on previous versions of Windows, you might notice cosmetic issues, such as overlapping or truncated text strings, in VIs and LabVIEW dialog boxes.

Which kinda defeats the whole purpose of using system fonts/colours/&c altogether This issue is something that everyone that uses system settings should be mindful of at all times - not just when moving from XP to VISTA. Different instances of XP can have exactly the same issue.

[BrokenArrow]

QUOTE (crelf @ May 31 2008, 05:15 PM)

Which kinda defeats the whole purpose of using system fonts/colours/&c altogether....

Exactly! But to their credit (NI), and your point, an XP "system" is not a Vista "system" so this kind of thing is bound to happen when transporting system fonts. I've just never seen anything quite as bad as I encountered as shown in the attached picture, where the numeric array no longer lines up with the integer array, causing me to think I was missing the bottom element.

-Richard

[crelf]

QUOTE (BrokenArrow @ Jun 1 2008, 07:36 PM)

Exactly! But to their credit (NI), and your point, an XP "system" is not a Vista "system" so this kind of thing is bound to happen when transporting system fonts.

Right - I know that it's good form to use system fonts et al for dialogs, but I usually go with true type fonts. That said, most of the software I write is deployed to controlled platforms, where changing system fonts/colours/&c is locked down, so I almost never see this as an issue.

[jdunham]

QUOTE (crelf @ Jun 2 2008, 07:49 AM)

Right - I know that it's good form to use system fonts et al for dialogs, but I usually go with true type fonts. That said, most of the software I write is deployed to controlled platforms, where changing system fonts/colours/&c is locked down, so I almost never see this as an issue.

The problem is not just Vista versus XP. You will have horrible font problems if your application is viewed on computers with different "font size" display settings in XP.

Our solution for the font woes is to make sure that

appFont=""Tahoma" 13"

dialogFont=""Tahoma" 13"

systemFont=""Tahoma" 13"

are in the LabVIEW Preferences INI file of each deployed application (and of course in the LabVIEW.INI file itself. Then you are more or less immune to different display configurations modifying your button sizes and text field extents.

See http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/65F...62562C70073BE06 and related links for more info.

The down side is that it's harder to make an application that looks like native XP on when run on XP and looks like native Vista when run on Vista. It's a small price to pay for all the time you save.

[BrokenArrow]

QUOTE (jdunham @ Jun 2 2008, 05:50 PM)

The problem is not just Vista versus XP. You will have horrible font problems if your application is viewed on computers with different "font size" display settings in XP.

Our solution for the font woes is to make sure that

appFont=""Tahoma" 13"

dialogFont=""Tahoma" 13"

systemFont=""Tahoma" 13"

are in the LabVIEW Preferences INI file of each deployed application (and of course in the LabVIEW.INI file itself. Then you are more or less immune to different display configurations modifying your button sizes and text field extents.

See http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/65F...62562C70073BE06 and related links for more info.

The down side is that it's harder to make an application that looks like native XP on when run on XP and looks like native Vista when run on Vista. It's a small price to pay for all the time you save.

Your point is in relation to EXE's. I don't think in Dev mode, we're talking about the same thing. NI has stated specifically "you might notice cosmetic issues, such as overlapping or truncated text strings". This is documented in the KnowledgeBase article.

See..

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?boar...d=33221#M257736

[jdunham]

QUOTE (BrokenArrow @ Jun 2 2008, 02:57 PM)

Your point is in relation to EXE's. I don't think in Dev mode, we're talking about the same thing. NI has stated specifically "you might notice cosmetic issues, such as overlapping or truncated text strings". This is documented in the KnowledgeBase article.

See..

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?boar...d=33221#M257736

I think it is the same issue. The first thing I had to do when I opened LabVIEW in Vista was change the default fonts from Vista fonts (SegoeUI, which doesn't exist on XP) back to Tahoma, and then my existing GUIs were not all ruined. II think the folks in that thread could have solved their problems by changing the LabVIEW fonts to non-default(XP compatibility) settings rather than changing the theme. Changing the theme would be equivalent, but changing only the LV fonts would not affect the other applications.

It's also possible that there are other NI display bugs, but I haven't seen similar issues, and I have been running Vista 6 months, with old-style XP fonts, of course.