I suck

[Phillip Brooks]

I worked from home today, school was closed for the kids due to weather.

I decided to take the opportunity to 'get up to speed'. I've been working on Windows XP and LabVIEW 8.6 for years.

My new laptop is nice, and I'm starting to get used to Windows 7. I installed LabVIEW, activated it and started it up. OK.

Then everything falls apart. I have a user.lib collection that I need to update. WinZIP has the f?!King 'ribbon' and I can't figure out to use it. I finally find a 'classic' mode that helps. I discovered that I installed the 32 bit version of LabVIEW (not on purpose, don't know how the choice was made) and the software installs into an (x86) folder. My user.lib ZIP file has the full path, and either winzip or Windows 7 won't let me unzip into the Program Files folder. I extract to the desktop and then move everything into the (x86)\National Instruments..... folder.

The tool that uses user.lib was built off the root of C: (bad, i know). I end up extracting that to the desktop and then moving it. I try to open the code and I get complaints that the VI Analyzer is not found/activated. I remember reading that VI Analyzer was being upgraded to a full toolkit, and now my tool is useless because one of it's jobs is to analyze VIs for upgrading. I have a Developer Suite Test Edition, but I still need to pay for Analyzer? How About taking CVI and giving me something that as a LabVIEW developer I can actually USE?!

Ugh.

When did all this sh!t happen, and why am I old and unable to handle it. What was wrong with the old ways (XP, no ribbons, write to disk where I want)?

Now I can't get Cathy Sierra's How to be an Expert slide out of my head.

I suck at this, I give up.

[jdunham]

Yeah, there's lots of suck to go around. One tip. If you when your open WinZip use "Run as Administrator" (it's in the right-click menus) and then you will be able to write into restricted folders such as \Program Files.

Don't run 64-bit LabVIEW if you want to build EXEs which can be run on normal (32-bit) Windows.

[Omar Mussa]

I believe the proper usage is iSuck

[Michael Aivaliotis]

I seem to always be using LabVIEW 32 bit. The executables built work on 32bit and 64 bit Windows.

[ShaunR]

Well. you are jumping 2 rather large technology areas.. It took me a week to figure out how to find the control panel and to turn off the User Access Control in windows 7 I've also always moaned about LV activation since I have to apply activation (for the 24 modules) manually. I'm sure once you are familiar with win7 you'll try again

[Michael Aivaliotis]

In Vista, User Access Control was a pain. However, this is much improved in Windows 7. I hardly get any confirmation dialogs except when installing software. Even though I now work off-of a Mac and have delegated Windows 7 to a VM, I have to say that I really like the new control panel in Windows 7. It's more task centered and makes more sense to me than the old way.

[Phillip Brooks]

I believe the proper usage is iSuck

Sorry, I'm not an Apple user.

I suppose I should have used "Microsoft Suck Genuine - Platinum Edition; SP4 with VI Analyzer Option Pack".

[hooovahh]

Wow I don't know where to begin, lets see UAC in Windows 7 is easy. Once it's installed in the start menu is a section called Getting Started and in that is a button that says turn off UAC. Not easy enough? Type in UAC in the search bar and hit enter, move the slider down and click OK.

As for Winzip who uses winzip? I didn't know that was even still supported. What does it do that hasn't been bundled with the operating system since XP SP2? If you want to use something other than the built in zip utility install 7-zip. The interface is the same as it always has been. You can right click any archive in explorer and say extract here. Even with many EXE type compressed files that self extract to a specific directory can be extracted right there.

There's nothing wrong with running LabVIEW 32 bit in 64 bit OS (as I think others have said). I would actually prefer it unless I was developing for a machine that I knew would be running a 64 bit OS.

The other problems with the User.lib going to the wrong directory is a little your fault but I would also blame Microsoft if you wanted. If they must have two separate Program Files directories (and I'm not convinced they do) then why wouldn't they have the old Program Files be x86, and make a new directory called Program Files x64? I'm sure they knew that making the x86 folder renamed would break some code. I installed some printer software that installed inside C:\Program Files\Program Files (x86)\[printer software directory] I'm not sure who is to blame but on a 32 bit OS this installs to the right location.

And Shaun why are you activating modules manually? Does the activation wizard not work for you in Windows 7?

I guess I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Came into the office an extra hour earlier because my laptop was in the wrong time zone after traveling. So don't take anything I say personally.

[ShaunR]

And Shaun why are you activating modules manually? Does the activation wizard not work for you in Windows 7?

Activation wizard works fine. Development machines don't have internet access, nor do they need it. We have separate (IT owned) machines for office work like internet browsing

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

Activation wizard works fine. Development machines don't have internet access, nor do they need it. We have separate (IT owned) machines for office work like internet browsing

Then let it send you a confirmation email. In there all activation codes are listed and can be copy-pasted enblock into the activation wizard. Had to do that here because the wizard seemed not able to connect to the activation server, while it could actually have me send the email, so go figure .