Val Brown

...and whether or not that programming effort would be better spent on other features, overall stability, etc.

I guess for me it's kind of like asking to have the ability to have something like the CTL-A>Delete option disabled in case someone malicious comes around and does that, then saves your VI. Disabling Abort and Continuous Run seem different to me, FWIW, in that they can be part of a built application, whereas BDC can't be -- its only in the IDE.

A flash drive backup would seem to be an alternative as well in that case.

How about using Source Code Control and reverting to a version just prior to that "helpful" input? I may be misunderstanding here but this seems to me to be a primary example of the value of backing up and/or SCC. I use Subversion now and have found it to be useful -- FWIW.

It's also one of those "...and they didn't do it MY way..." kind of things.

OK, so now that we have a possible sequence of operations (including Registry writes, etc), can we return to the OP's OQ: viz, what do I have to do in the build spec for an installer so that it will "...copy two files into c:Windows\System32\drivers"?

right but only in Texas....another reason to go to NI-Week and the LAVA BBQ!

One of the best places to find out what LV is being used for, by whom and in what ways is by going to NI Week. Take back the range of experience you see and your company will thank you for starting them on this fascinating process. Yes, education is great but just doing the courses without seeing the breadth of use won't convey the real message.

"When I makes tea I makes tea....when I makes water I makes water...." If you're going to go to NI Week then go for the Full. You'll kick yourself afterwards otherwise. Do the evening events, esp the LAVA BBQ!

Michael, they are two digitally signed driver files for our custom hardware: one is an SYS extension whereas the other is an SPT extension because the hardware does a double enumeration. EIther one of those files will throw MSIerror 1627... almost immediately upon invoking setup.exe. We use VISA Run-Time 5.0.3 and I'm doing the dev work in 2010 sp1. CodE, could you say more about the zip file alternative: eg point me to an example?

I'm trying to build an installer for my application. Target OS is W7 64-bit even though the app is 32-bit. All is good (now!) in the build except for when it comes to trying to copy two files into c:Windows\System32\drivers. I've tried various ways to specify the destination folder but it seems that no matter which way I go, the copy function fails, and/or the build screams at me that it can't find something (via MDF). I can't find any good info -- perhaps I'm just missing it when I do my searches -- and was hoping someone here might have some good ideas....

This would definitely be a change from the legacy return values.

I'm planning on it.

Nice! I wish I had known that, it would have helped with some of my debugging in the past....

Yes i could have made it clear that I don't have OpenG on my system but I've talked about that so much in the past that I just assumed it was known. And we all know what happens when we assume.... Yes, and I too was hopeful about the "launch ALL the missiles" possibility....

OK, thanks for the info. NOW I can do a workaround. < begin soapbox section > Remember I don't even have "ogtk" on my system and so had no way of knowing what that VI did, esp given that the VI in question only had one input (an int) and no outputs (except for Error In/Out) there was no way for me to discern what that VI did, esp with a truncated name. Maybe it was "...get the largest decimal..."...."...and set it to 0..."; or maybe it was "launch ALL the missiles". It's easy to forget that, if do have the relevant toolkit installed but you're emailing someone who doesn't, they probably can't even see some things that are very obvious to you. < end soapbox section > Thanks again!

Now that's a really great idea -- who'd havve thunk'd it? How about a little help, like what does "Fit VI Windows to Largest Dec_ogtk.VI do and, perhaps more importantly, how does it do whatever do do it do do...(esp with a 0 argument...)....please?

OK so here is my perennial question: How can this be done WITHOUT having to use any OpenG?

I use Fusion. I originally started with Parallels but then became a bit disgusted with some licensing issues during a transition to a later version -- perhaps 4 to 5 I don't remember now. I definitely like the Fusion user community more than what I remember from Parallels. I have found the user community to be incredibly helpful when I run into issues which, generally are of the RTFM sort and, despite that, everyone is friendly, thorough and considerate. I'm on a MBP 2.66 Ghz i7 8 GB RAM running 10.6.6 and LV 2010 sp1. I run on an external monitor as well, using Unity mode so I spread my workspace across the entire system, transparently switching back and forth between Mac (where I do all of my email and internet (using Safari) except for some Windows-based access for SVN and such. There a few minot inconveniences, eg if I just "shut the lid" and have Unity spread out on two monitors with LV open and running across the desktop, then come back and open it up, sometimes the Windows environment will get a bit wonky: ie the display of the various Windows will not be as I left them. I just need to remember to shut the Windows programs down before doing that or keeping the external monitor connected or, perhaps best of all, leave the focus on one of the open Windows windows...again and RTFM kind of thing.

It's getting that damned tatoo that's so tough. Is there an Express VI for that?

It might be good to start a new thread about this. I went through quite a bit with NI to get my 8.x apps to build correctly in 2009. They were actually continuing ports and developments since 5.x and it's been quite interesting to me to see how little NI has tested such legacy code when moving to a new version. So start a new thread re: the specific build issues you've experienced and someone here will likely be able to help you out -- perhaps even me!

I'd agree that 7.1 was the most stable but that may also have involved the aspects of LV that I use the most. Yes, other languages have their place and, were I to program primarily or even significantly more than I do i those domains, I'd consider using them where they excelled. I'm not a "gun for hire" at this point; so I have the luxury of essentially developing in-house for a single "project" (that of course wasn't even a project until....) and that makes it very easy to stay with LV, notice the bugs and then work around them. And in general that's worked pretty well. I used to be an "early adopters" of the new releases but got burned on 2009 when I discovered some major issues (and, yes, filed CARs, went down to visit LV, etc, etc). Ultimately all of that has gotten resolved -- it just took time and not all of that was NI's fault. It's too long of a story to go into here but one of the things that I like most about LV is that it is supported by a single company. And, no, I'm not forgetting LAVA et al but, officially at least, there is a single company out there that does except bug reports, does file CARs and then is, generally pretty clear about its intentions to address that bug or not. With C, C++, etc you have so many 3rd party "add ons" that are ESSENTIAL and those can change, IME, in the blink of an eye. I can't afford that kind of unpredictability for my work. And I do have a life outside of programming (didn't used to) so I'd far rather be out golfing than scouring the net to find the latest .net assembly or DLL or whatever to solve (again) a problem created by the versioning of the prior .net assembly, DLL or whatever that USED TO work. hmmmm, I guess a bit ranty but it's early in the morning and I'm only halfway through my first cup...then again maybe even though it's early it's time to switch....

Thanks, that's been one of favorite examples for years -- he wrote using a QWERTY keyboard himself.

Just for grins I posted a reply but I'm sure it will just inflame the natives, native language programmers that is... I get so tired of religious wars and "java jihads" (so to speak)....

Well you are waiting...on an error...hmmm how Common is that????