Programmatically check drivers are present

[Graeme]

Hi all,

I write relatively simple ATE programs in LabVIEW. A pre main routine subVI I always put in is one that checks if all expected VISA resources are present in the ATE system. This works very well if NI-VISA, and in my case NI-488.2 too, are installed on the host machine, but if they're not it can be a bit mystifying to the user. They see that the instruments are present but my ATE program can't find them because those drivers aren't installed.

My question is, what is the best way to check programmatically, that prior to an ATE test that requires (say VISA and 488.2) drivers to be present, the presence of these drivers can be verified?

My first thoughts are to execute some File I/O on their expected path to see if they are there. Then I think this may require some regular expression work as version numbers may differ, but (possibly) be irrelevant. Latterly, I wonder can you programmatically query MAX?

I would be interested if others have encountered the same same problem and what solutions they came up with.

Regards.

[LAVA 1.0 Content]

You should be able to read all the info from the registry. Here's a quick example to get you started. (There are some inconsistencies in the registry how the version info is stored. See RegEdit.)

Download File:post-3370-1215646246.vi

[Graeme]

Thank you for your reply and attached VI. I'll try it out.

Regards, Graeme.