© 2014 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved.
This file contains release notes, patent information, and last-minute information for NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 14.0. Some information in this file may be too recent to be included in the official documentation set.
Parts of this document are only relevant to a full installation and do not apply to a runtime-only installation.
This readme contains the following main sections:
Support for Windows Server 2003 R2 may require disabling physical address extensions (PAE). To learn how this might affect your use of Windows Server 2003 and what actions you might need to take, visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code PAESupport.
Win16 and DOS support are available on 32 bit Windows operating systems.
When installing on a system that already has a version of .NET Framework installed, NI-488.2 .NET Framework Help will appear in the Start menu or on Windows 8 in NI Launcher. This help requires a viewer, available with Visual Studio or other .NET development environments. If you do not have a viewer installed, you will receive a Missing Shortcut error when you try to launch the help.
This driver allows upgrades starting from NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.0, on Windows XP. To install over software lower than Version 2.0 on Windows XP, you must uninstall the lower version first. To uninstall on Windows XP, go to the Control Panel and select Add/Remove Programs.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.5.2, was the first version to support Windows Vista. If you installed a version of NI-488.2 lower than Version 2.5.2 on Windows Vista, you must uninstall it. To uninstall on Windows Vista, go to the Control Panel and select Programs and Features. After uninstalling the unsupported driver on Windows Vista, you must run a clean-up utility. For this utility and more information, visit ni.com/kb and search for 46BH366K.
You must uninstall a higher version before installing a lower version.
NI-488.2 has known compatibility issues with the Fast Startup introduced in Windows 8. Leaving Fast Startup enabled may cause improper functioning of the NI-488.2 driver and GPIB hardware. To prevent problems with installing or removing hardware, National Instruments recommends disabling Fast Startup. The NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 14.0 installer disables Fast Startup by default. For more information about this issue, please visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code Win8FastStartup.
For more information about changes in NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 14.0, review the Enhancements and Bug Fixes in Version 14.0 section.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 14.0, supports GPIB communication using the following hardware.
| GPIB Interface | Windows 8.1/8/7 SP1/Vista SP2/Server 2012 R2/Server 2008 R2 SP1 | Windows XP SP3/Server 2003 R2 SP2 (32-Bit) |
|---|---|---|
| AT-GPIB/TNT (PnP) | No | Yes |
| GPIB-ENET/100 | Yes1 | Yes1 |
| GPIB-ENET/1000 | Yes | Yes |
| GPIB-USB-B | Yes | Yes |
| GPIB-USB-HS | Yes | Yes |
| GPIB-USB-HS+ | Yes | Yes |
| NI ExpressCard-GPIB | Yes | Yes |
| NI PCIe-GPIB | Yes | Yes |
| NI PCIe-GPIB+ | Yes | Yes |
| NI PCI-GPIB | Yes | Yes |
| NI PCI-GPIB+ | Yes | Yes |
| NI PCI-GPIB/LP | Yes | Yes |
| NI PCI-8212 | Yes | Yes |
| NI PCI-8232 | Yes | Yes |
| NI PCMCIA-GPIB | No | Yes |
| NI PCMCIA-GPIB+ | No | Yes |
| NI PMC-GPIB | Yes | Yes |
| NI PXI-GPIB | Yes | Yes |
| NI PXI-8212 | Yes | Yes |
| NI PXI-8232 | Yes | Yes |
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 14.0, supports GPIB Analyzer functionality using the following hardware.
| GPIB Interface | Windows 8.1/8/7 SP1/Vista SP2/Server 2012 R2/Server 2008 R2 SP1 | Windows XP SP3/Server 2003 R2 SP2 (32-Bit) |
|---|---|---|
| NI PCIe-GPIB+ | Yes | Yes |
| NI PCI-GPIB+ | Yes | Yes |
| NI PCMCIA-GPIB+ | No | Yes |
| GPIB-USB-HS+ | Yes | Yes |
This driver version is recommended for use with the following National Instruments software:
The Measurement Studio examples install to various directories, depending on the following:
For detailed information on examples for Measurement Studio, refer to Where To Find Examples in the NI Measurement Studio Help.
The following table lists the programming languages and Microsoft Visual Studio versions supported by NI-488.2.
| Programming Language | Visual Studio Versions Supported by NI-488.2 |
|---|---|
| Unmanaged C/C++ | 6.0[1][2], 2003[2], 2005, 2008, 2010, and 2012 |
| .NET Framework 3.5 Languages (C# and Visual Basic.NET) |
2008 |
| .NET Framework 4.0 Languages (C# and Visual Basic.NET) |
2010 |
| .NET Framework 4.5 Languages (C# and Visual Basic.NET) |
2012[3] |
| Visual Basic | 6.0[4] |
|
1 Programs built in debug mode using Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 cannot link to the current ni4882 object file. For how to solve this problem, go to ni.com/kb and search for 5DNDRI2F. 2 Microsoft Visual C/C++ 6.0 and 2003 do not support 64-bit GPIB applications. 3 Requires Windows Vista SP2 or later. 4 Visual Basic 6.0 does not support 64-bit GPIB applications. |
|
NI-488.2 for Windows, version 2.8.1 was the last release that included full feature support for Visual C++ MFC 2005 and 2008. Additions made to the NI-488.2 API after version 2.8.1 will not be reflected in the Visual C++ MFC support.
If you are using .NET Framework 2.0 and you need NI-488.2 support, you must use NI-488.2 3.1 or earlier. However, if you installed .NET Framework 2.0 support from a previous version of NI-488.2, upgrading to version 14.0 will not remove that support. For more information on NI-488.2 support for .NET Framework 2.0, including considerations for users upgrading from NI-488.2 3.1 or earlier, visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code 488mvs05.
If you are using .NET Framework 1.1 or Visual C++ MFC 2003 and you need NI-488.2 support, you must use NI-488.2 2.8 or earlier. However, if you installed .NET Framework 1.1 or Visual C++ MFC 2003 support from a previous version of NI-488.2, upgrading to version 14.0 will not remove that support. For more information on NI-488.2 support for .NET Framework 1.1 or Visual C++ MFC 2003, including considerations for users upgrading from NI-488.2 2.8 or earlier, visit ni.com/info and enter the Info Code 488mvs03.
NI-488.2 includes ANSI C support for Borland 5.02.
This release adds support for the GPIB-USB-HS+ GPIB controller and Analyzer. Along with this, the NI GPIB Analyzer utility has undergone changes to allow it to work with the new analyzer hardware. The NI GPIB Analyzer utility allows simultaneous use of multiple GPIB-USB-HS+ analyzers, along with up to one non-USB GPIB analyzer.
This release adds support for Windows Server 2012 R2. Refer to the Supported Interfaces table for the list of supported hardware.
The integer types used in the NI4882 API (ni4882.h) have been updated. All uses of unsigned long have been replaced with unsigned int. These types are functionally identical with all supported compilers, and this change improves the portability of 64-bit GPIB applications to other platforms. Users of ibnotify will need to update the function prototypes for callback functions. In most other cases applications will compile cleanly. This change is fully binary-compatible with applications built against previous versions of NI-488.2 and does not impact users of the GPIB-32 API (ni488.h).
NI-488.2 14.0 for Windows is now available in a smaller Runtime form. The NI-488.2 Runtime is a minimal installation which does not include many of the utilities and supporting software included with the full NI-488.2 distribution. When building installers from LabVIEW or other NI development environments, you will now have the option of including this smaller subset of NI-488.2 in your distribution.
319093: Attempting to bring a non-existent device online after setting the IbcSendLLO board configuration option causes an ENOL error instead of EBUS. This problem impacted all USB based GPIB interfaces. This has been fixed.
122997: The EOIP status bit could remain set incorrectly if an ibwrta or ibrda call returned an EDVR error.
171688: An ibnotify callback could fail to be triggered by END if the notify condition included END but not CMPL.
205182: Asynchronous transfers could sometimes report EABO even though the transfer completed successfully.
372832: A callback from ibnotify might not be invoked after an asynchronous transfer was completed if the notify mask only contained END.
374822: Calling ibonl while ibnotify is pending could cause the process to crash under some circumstances.
380705: Aborting an ibrda very quickly after starting it could allow a PCI-based GPIB interface to receive data when addressed as a listener, without a read in progress. This data was lost, and could not be recovered.
404267: In some situations, the GPIB-ENET/1000 could hang while performing asynchronous transfers. This included fixes in both the NI-488.2 driver and the GPIB-ENET/1000 firmware. Users of the GPIB-ENET/1000 should update the GPIB-ENET/1000 firmware to version 1.1.0 to receive the full benefit of this fix.
405414: In some cases the DCAS bit was not correctly cleared after being reported, causing it to be reported with subsequent calls.
418661: In some situations, when an ibnotify callback function was triggered due to the completion of an asynchronous transfer, the ibcnt and ibcntl variables would be incorrect.
425931: Calling ibstop with an asynchronous operation in progress would sometimes not report an EABO error as expected.
464114: When using a GPIB-USB-B controller, the call immediately following an ibstop call could be incorrectly aborted.
463966: Severe performance degredation when performing large writes to GPIB-USB-HS hardware through USB 3.0 ports on Windows 7.
332479: On GPIB-USB-B and GPIB-USB-HS controllers, the first I/O operation after device insertion could be terminated prematurely.
240000: On GPIB-USB-B and GPIB-USB-HS controllers, ibwait and ibnotify could fail to detect the CIC, LACS, and TACS bits.
191044: The GPIB Analyzer did not automatically append the correct file extension when saving a capture.
87073: The GPIB Analyzer did not prompt to save if the application is closed while capturing data.
379939: An exception could be reported by System Configuration API when initializing the ni4882 plugin if NI Configuration Manager service is not running. This could manifest itself as crashes in any application using the System Configuration API or be reported as unhandled exceptions in niGPIBsys.dll when using MAX.
373644: Several issues have been resolved when scanning for instruments in MAX. These issues may have caused MAX to crash or the discovered GPIB instruments to not be displayed correctly.
This version improves the stability of NI-488.2 with MAX and Scan for Instruments.
When installing on Windows 8, NI-488.2 no longer pins shortcuts to the Start screen. Shortcuts which are available from the start menu on earlier versions of Windows may be accessed through the NI Launcher utility, or by searching from the Start screen.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 3.1.1, adds .NET Framework 4.5 support. It is available as an option in the Feature tree during installation.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 3.1, adds support for Windows 8. Refer to the Supported Interfaces table for the list of hardware supported on Windows 8.
351266: NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 3.1, adds support for direct entry into ni4882.dll. Previously there was only support for gpib-32.dll.
311091: In certain PXI Express chassis, the performance of GPIB writes through PXI-GPIB interfaces is very slow. This has been fixed.
370676: When disconnecting a USB hub with GPIB hardware connected, the GPIB hardware will not be properly removed from the system. This will prevent the use of the device until the system is rebooted. During the following reboot or shutdown, a blue screen error may occur. This has been fixed.
371371: When disconnecting a USB hub shortly after connecting a GPIB-USB-HS to the hub, a blue screen error may occur immediately. This has been fixed.
144103: Removing PCMCIA-GPIB interfaces while Windows is hibernated or suspended causes blue screen error during resume. This has been fixed.
122048: GPIB interface remains in locked state after the locking process is terminated unexpectedly. This generates an ELCK error on subsequent attempts to open the interface. This problem impacted all USB based GPIB interfaces. This has been fixed.
329737: A crash could occur after an upgrade if a GPIB interface was removed prior to the upgrade. The crash would occur after reinstalling the previously removed hardware. This is known to happen if the prior version installed was earlier than 2.8, and the driver is upgraded to version 2.8 or later. This issue is now resolved.
329127: PCMCIA and AT interfaces did not properly appear in Measurement & Automation Explorer or the System Configuration API when using NI-488.2 for Windows, version 3.0. This problem has been fixed.
GPIB interfaces are now displayed in MAX according to how they are connected to the system. Ethernet devices will now be located in the Network Devices section, and PXI interfaces are located with their associated PXI chassis.
GPIB interfaces supported by NI-488.2 for Windows will now be visible through the NI System Configuration API.
Previous versions of NI-488.2 for Windows did not install DOS and Win16 support on Windows 7 or Vista. It is now installed on all 32-bit versions of Windows. The feature is enabled by default, but may be disabled through Measurement and Automation Explorer.
USB and ExpressCard interfaces failed to install properly in VirtualPC, including Windows 7 XP Mode. These interfaces now enumerate correctly.
GPIB configuration data can now be reset to default through Measurement and Automation Explorer.
NI Spy is replaced by NI I/O Trace.
299874: Setting the default HS Cable Length in Measurement and Automation Explorer for the GPIB-ENET/1000 did not work. This problem had been fixed. Note: This fix requires the GPIB-ENET/1000 firmware to be updated to version 1.0.1 or later.
279530: When closing device handle, the process may hang if a USB or ExpressCard interface was removed with a call to ibwait pending. This problem had been fixed.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.8.1, adds .NET Framework 4.0 support. It is available as an option in the Feature tree during installation.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.8, adds support for the GPIB-ENET/1000. For information about the differences between the GPIB-ENET/1000 and the GPIB-ENET/100, visit ni.com/kb and search for 5BPER2G2.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.8, adds support for Windows Server 2003 R2 (32-bit only) and Windows Server 2008 R2. Refer to the Supported Interfaces table for the list of supported hardware.
Support for Windows 2000 is discontinued in this release.
Traditional Chinese translations are discontinued in this release.
A significant performance decrease may be encountered when performing I/O with DMA enabled. This issue impacted all PCI, PCI Express, PXI, and PMC interfaces, including the built-in GPIB ports on PXI and VXI controllers. This will happen with NI-488.2, Version 2.7.2, and older versions of NI-488.2 on systems where other NI software has been updated. This has been fixed.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.7.2, adds support for Windows 7 x86 (32-bit) and Windows 7 x64 (64-bit). Refer to the Supported Interfaces table for the list of hardware supported on Windows 7.
182620: PCI type GPIB interfaces (PCI, PCI Express, PMC, PXI) were not waiting the recommended time of 1.5 ms for instruments to respond to ibln() and FindLstn() calls. This typically would affect only older instruments with significantly slow response time and does not affect most recent instruments. This has been fixed.
173210: BIOS incompatibilities on some systems prevented NI PXI-GPIB DMA from functioning properly across a MXI-Express link. Affected systems would fail all transfers larger than 32 bytes when configured for DMA mode. This issue has been fixed.
171428: Terminating a process that is using a USB GPIB interface could cause the process to hang and possibly a bluescreen. This has been fixed.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.7.1, adds support for 64-bit user mode in .NET Framework 3.5. You now can create 64-bit applications with .NET Framework 3.5.
For additional information, refer to Working with 64-bit .NET Support for NI-488.2 in the NI-488.2 .NET Framework 3.5 Help. This help file is available at Start»All Programs»National Instruments»NI-488.2»NI-488.2 .NET Framework 3.5 Help when the .NET Framework 3.5 Languages Support is installed on the system.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.7, adds support for the NI PCIe-GPIB+ Controller/Analyzer board.
This release adds support for the GPIB Analyzer on Windows Vista x64 (64-bit).
35095: Updated message displayed when using the Analyzer application without analyzer hardware present.
128461: The analyzer button is enabled in Measurement & Automation Explorer only when an analyzer interface is selected.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.7, adds Measurement Studio 2008 support. Measurement Studio 2008 support is selectable in the Feature tree during installation.
The serial number of a GPIB-ENET/100 can now be queried using the ibask function call.
135269: If a USB interface was removed while the system was shutting down, a runtime error could occur. This has been fixed.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.6, adds a 64-bit application interface that allows users to create 64-bit applications on Windows Vista x64 (64-bit) using ni4882.obj. Using the 32-bit version of ni4882.obj, users can use the same NI4882 API to build corresponding 32-bit applications with no source code changes. The 32-bit applications based on ni4882.obj are compatible on systems with NI-488.2 for Windows, versions 1.7 and later.
For more information about the new NI4882 API, refer to the NI-488.2 Help.
This release adds support in Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) for the standard Export and Import wizard. This allows you to transfer the NI-488.2 configuration settings for supported GPIB interfaces.
By default, only users with Administrator privileges can update NI-488.2 configuration settings in MAX. For less restrictive environments, this release adds an option in the MAX Tools menu to allow privileges to all users for updating configuration settings. Only a user with Administrator privileges can set the option.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.6, adds .NET Framework 3.5 support and Visual Studio 2005 support fixes. They are options in the Feature tree during installation.
The Application Interface (formerly called Language Interface) and example files have moved.
The NIEXTCCOMPILERSUPP environment variable is provided as an alias to the location of C language support files. You can use this variable when compiling and linking an application. The Application Interface files (header and library files to include in applications) moved to a centralized location to prevent users from accidentally overwriting them and to provide this NIEXTCCOMPILERSUPP environment variable.
You can access the examples through Start»Programs»National Instruments»NI-488.2»Examples. The examples require the new NI4882 API.
For more information about the new NI4882 API, refer to the NI-488.2 Help.
This release includes the option of installing NI-488.2 for LabVIEW Real-Time parts from the Feature tree during installation. See the ReadMeRT.html file for more information about NI-488.2 for LabVIEW Real-Time.
41151: In rare cases, a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA bluescreen appeared while the driver executed a serial poll. This has been fixed.
40815: In rare cases, using ibnotify with GPIB USB interfaces produced an error message, where x and y represent memory addresses: The instruction at x referenced memory at y. The memory could not be "read." This has been fixed.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.5.2, adds support for Windows Vista x86 (32-bit) and Windows Vista x64 (64-bit). Refer to the Supported Interfaces table for the list of hardware supported on Windows Vista.
This driver includes several usability improvements, including the following:
For more details about these utilities and tools, refer to the NI-488.2 Help.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Versions 2.2 through 2.4.x, attempt to prevent the system from going to standby or hibernate if there is an application with an open NI-488.2 handle. To satisfy Windows Vista requirements, this has changed to no longer prevent the system from going to standby or hibernate. After the system returns from standby or hibernate, take the handle offline and open a new handle, because any subsequent calls from the previously opened handle will return the EPWR error code, except for ibonl 0.
This driver adds .NET 2005 language support and .NET 2003 language support fixes via the native .NET API. They are options in the Feature tree during installation.
Note that prior versions of NI-488.2 for Windows offered two options for .NET support to make it easier to update existing applications. The NI-488.2 wrapper interface, which previously was available on the CD in the Microsoft .NET Language Interface directory, has been removed from the current distribution. The NI-488.2 wrapper interface is still available at our Web site, ni.com.
The Language Interface and example files have moved from the Program Files\National Instruments\NI-488.2\Languages directory to the Users\Public\Documents\National Instruments\NI-488.2\Languages directory on Windows Vista and the Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\National Instruments\NI-488.2\Languages directory on Windows XP/2000. This change satisfies Windows Vista requirements, when allowing users to save changes or add files to the directory. Note that the NI-488.2 Help incorrectly describes the location for .NET examples.
3Q4GJOAU: On certain machines, a bluescreen describing an NMI Parity Error appeared on installing a NI PCI-GPIB+ interface. This has been fixed.
GPIB-USB-HS performance has improved and is optimized for whether it is connected to a full-speed or high-speed port.
3R296C5E: If an event handler was installed to handle service request (SRQ) events, the events could fail to trigger if the session was currently locked exclusively. This has been fixed.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.4, adds support for GPIB-USB-HS, NI ExpressCard-GPIB, and a revised version of the NI PCI-GPIB+ Controller/Analyzer board.
Support for the obsolete GPIB-USB-A interface is discontinued in this release.
3I191NAK: Driver version 2.3 performance during ibcmd and serial poll calls was lower than version 2.2. This has been fixed and improved over version 2.2.
Documentation has been updated for various features.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.3, adds language support for Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), and Korean. This is in addition to English and Japanese languages supported by the previous versions of NI-488.2 for Windows. All components of this release have been localized with the exception of:
This release also includes new getting started documentation in all languages supported, available through the View Documentation utility on the NI-488.2 for Windows CD.
Windows 98/Me support is discontinued in this release.
3BI8A578: The Sysprep utility would cause a crash in some cases of deployment. This has been fixed.
3D9ES759: An ibstop call was unable to stop asynchronous ibcmda calls. This has been fixed.
Some cosmetic issues with GPIB utilities have been fixed.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.2, adds support for the AT-GPIB/TNT (PnP) interface.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.2, adds support for the NI PCIe-GPIB, a PCI Express Interface for GPIB.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.2, adds the EPWR error code. This error indicates that the interface lost power. This may occur when the system goes to standby or hibernate mode. The NI-488.2 driver attempts to prevent the system from going to standby or hibernate if there is an application with an open NI-488.2 handle.
National Instruments provides two interfaces for developing GPIB-based applications in Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 or later:
We recommend the native .NET API as the preferred method of developing GPIB .NET applications because of its superior integration into the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET IDE. The native .NET API can be installed from the NI-488.2 CD by selecting it from the custom installation section. It is installed in the National Instruments\Measurement Studio subdirectory. Full integrated help for this API is available inside the Visual Studio .NET environment. The NI-488.2 wrapper interface can be found on the CD in the Microsoft .NET Language Interface directory.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.2, adds the IbaSerialNumber option to ibask. This allows customers to query the serial number of the board that they are using. The ibask call will return a 32-bit serial number for supported interfaces. The driver will return with ERR bit set in ibsta, and iberr set to ECAP for unsupported interfaces. This feature is not supported with the Visual Basic language interface. The VB language interface for ibask does not handle unsigned 32-bit numbers.
34EHULAW: Older National Instruments PCMCIA-GPIB devices would not enumerate properly with the 2.1 driver. This has been fixed.
2Q379FSL: The driver sometimes would not call the ibnotify callback, or call the ibnotify callback improperly when waiting for RQS. This has been fixed.
35LEK99F: The driver would hang if a device-level ibconfig was called with IbcSPollTime, IbcPAD, or IbcSAD when an ibnotify call on the same device descriptor was in progress. This has been fixed.
36NARLXY: The driver had a small memory leak when being used by VISA. This has been fixed.
2SJC9C00: The GPIB Analyzer application would crash when launched with some video cards. This has been fixed.
2XFEF2Q6: Enabling DOS support worked improperly when logging in as a different user than it was enabled as. This has been fixed.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.1, adds support for the NI PCMCIA-GPIB interface. Following the precedent of Version 2.0 of the driver, which unified the driver for the PCI, ENET, and USB interfaces, this version ensures that those interfaces along with the NI PCMCIA-GPIB can function simultaneously with the same driver.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.1, supports the GPIB analyzer portion of the NI PCI-GPIB+ and NI PCMCIA-GPIB+ on the Windows XP/2000 operating systems. This support was previously only available on Windows NT/98/95.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.0, improves the installation experience for the user.
In the past, there were separate drivers for plug-in interface boards (NI PCI-GPIB, etc.), the GPIB-ENET family, and the GPIB-USB-A. Only one of these three could be installed and used at any one time. NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.0, removes this restriction. All supported interfaces function simultaneously with the same driver.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.0, resolves the issue that prevents users running the software in USER mode (as opposed to ADMINISTRATOR mode).
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.0, offers an improved localized solution in Japanese.
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.0, does not support Win16 applications for Windows Me/9x platforms. Win16 support is available under Windows XP/2000. To use these applications under Windows Me/9x, you must use a previous version of NI-488.2 for Windows. DOS support is available on all operating systems this driver supports.
NI-488.2 versions are now aligned with the versions of major NI application software products. This alignment gives you information about the year the driver was released and the most recent software version the driver was designed to work with. Driver versions now start with a two-digit year indicator: <ProductName><Year-BasedVersion>. For example, NI-488.2 14.0 is the version released with LabVIEW 2014. The last version released under the old numbering scheme is NI-488.2 3.1.2. The first version released under the new numbering scheme is NI-488.2 14.0.
You can automate the installation of most NI products using command-line arguments to suppress some or all of the installer user interface and dialog boxes. However, starting with the August 2012 releases (products using NI Installers version 3.1 or later), you may need to perform additional steps before or during a silent installation of NI software.
If the NI product you are installing uses Microsoft .NET 4.0, the .NET installer may run before any NI software installs and may require a reboot before the installation of NI software begins. To avoid a .NET reboot, install .NET 4.0 separately before you install NI software.
For more information, refer to the following KnowledgeBase articles:
When you install National Instruments software on Microsoft Windows 8, you will notice a few additional tiles on the Start screen, including shortcuts to NI application software products such as NI LabVIEW, Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX), and the new NI Launcher.
NI Launcher helps you find and launch installed NI products. It provides you with a method of finding NI products similar to the Start menu in previous versions of Microsoft Windows. To use NI Launcher, click the NI Launcher tile on the Start screen. NI Launcher launches the desktop and opens a menu containing a list of NI products. Click any NI product to launch it.
| Note Unlike previous versions of Microsoft Windows, MAX does not appear as a desktop shortcut. You can launch MAX either from the Start screen or from within NI Launcher. |
For convenience, you can pin your most-used NI applications, such as MAX, to either the Start screen or the Taskbar on the desktop, as necessary:
| Current Application | Icon Location | Pin to Action |
| Windows 8 Desktop | Desktop Taskbar | Right-click application and select Pin to Taskbar |
| Windows 8 Desktop | Start screen | Right-click application and select Pin to Start |
| Windows 8 Start screen | Desktop Taskbar | Right-click application and select Pin to taskbar from the menu bar on the bottom of the screen |
If you want to find a particular application or related files, such as documentation files, from the Start screen, you can access all installed files by right-clicking anywhere on the Start screen and selecting All apps. A list of all installed software and related files appears, in alphabetical order by creator or type.
For more information about NI support for Windows 8, visit ni.com/windows8.
NI-488.2 will drop support for Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 as of July 1, 2016. Versions of NI-488.2 that ship after July 1, 2016 will not install or run on Windows Vista, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003. For detailed information about NI application software product life cycles, visit ni.com/info and enter one of the following Info Codes:
| Product | Info Code |
|---|---|
| NI LabVIEW | lifecycle |
| NI LabWindows™/CVI™ | cvi_lifecycle |
| NI Measurement Studio | mstudiolifecycle |
| NI TestStand | tslcp |
| NI DIAdem | ddlcp |
| NI SignalExpress | selcp |
| NI VeriStand | nivslifecycle |
Thank you for your interest in NI-488.2 for Windows. We appreciate communicating with the people who use our products. We are also very interested in hearing about the applications you develop using our products. Our Web site, ni.com, provides advanced support and services and contact information.
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