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Hi Everyone, I was just alerted to this discussion (thanks @drjdpowell), so I wanted to be sure I heard all the feedback, to make sure we're staying on top it. Before I dive in, I'll mention there is a version 2020.1 in beta right now (if you can't access this, please be sure you sign up for the beta and/or send me a PM). This addresses many of the points raised here, so please check it out. Also, it's important to mention that VIPM 2020 had a LOT of work (and love) put into it, and the beta+launch was in the middle of COVID-19, so things didn't get as many eyes (i.e. beta testers) as usual. That's unfortunate and we're working hard on the new 2020.1 build. Any feedback/issues you have are important, so please do post them and know we're listening. It's hard to keep tabs on conversations that happen in various LAVA threads, so if you'd like to see something improved/resolved, please do post it in the VIPM forum or PM me. I'll try hard to respond to the good points everyone raised. First, I'll mention that VIPM 2020.1 no longer requires a sign in when installing packages from the VIPM Community Repository. In 2020.0, this was causing issues for some users due to their Enterprise IT/Networking configuration. And, as you've all mentioned, some users really didn't like it, which is fair. There are still some features that use sign-in, like starring packages, and there will be a prompt when those features are invoked. @LogMAN Actually, nothing changed with how VIPM installs itself 2020, as compared to 2019 (and older versions). The issue was that the the VIPM 2020.0 (and older) installer framework (e.g. Advanced Installer) needed to be updated for newer versions of Windows. In VIPM 2020.1 (now in beta -- see link above) we've addressed this issue and it should install without issues. That said, there were some bugs in NI's LabVIEW 2020 installer that causes it to fail to correctly install VIPM 2020, in some cases -- e.g. the issue where it sometimes would fail to start. NI has been working with JKI to fix this. @Neil Pate That's fair We added this feature to make VIPM much more responsive when users are opening packages -- VIPM sometimes runs as a background task, so that it doesn't have to reload itself for each of these operations. This can be disabled in the VIPM settings file, here: "C:\ProgramData\JKI\VIPM\Settings.ini" [General] Start VIPM when computer starts?="FALSE" Start VIPM when LabVIEW starts?="FALSE" @Michael Aivaliotis Thanks for helping everyone out. Older versions of VIPM are available to users -- we have a link on the vipm.io/download page for users. However, since older versions of VIPM use outdated LV runtime engines that are longer be supported by NI and don't work well on newer OS'es, we don't encourage users to use them -- it often creates more problems for them, and a support burden for JKI and NI. As such, we ask that people do not post older downloads and instead direct people to get them from either NI or the VIPM websites. Again, thanks for helping people out. Also, I appreciate everyone's feedback -- I know when things don't work well, it's super frustrating. VIPM 2020 had some bugs and left room for improvement, because of all the new features that had to get out the door in time for the LabVIEW 2020 launch date, and we didn't have the typical level of beta testing. I hope 2020.1 resolves those, and if it's still missing things or not working right, let me know and I'll take responsibility for those issues. Kind Regards, -Jim

Wow, this is good news! I'll give it a try. Point taken, I was going to post on the VIPM forum but then this thread happened and I couldn't resist... You can also disable the VIPM Service in the Task Manager under Startup. That said, I would like this to be opt-in or at least opt-out. Maybe on first start or during installation.

In an attempt to standardize my handling of formatting timestamps as text, I have added functions to "JDP Science Common Utilities" (a VI support package, on the Tools Network). This is used by SQLite Library (version just released) and JSONtext (next release), but they can also be used by themselves (LabVIEW 2013+). Follows RFC3339, and supports local-time offsets.