Using LabWindows/CVI to Install Your Device .inf Files

LabWindows/CVI supports distribution of .inf files for PXI/PCI, USB, and FireWire devices. For VISA-based instrument drivers for devices of these types, you must include the generated .inf file in your application's installer. In LabWindows/CVI 8.1.1 and later, perform the following steps to create the distribution:

1. Generate the .inf file for your instrument using the NI-VISA Driver Wizard.
2. In the LabWindows/CVI Edit Installer dialog box Files tab, create an installation directory for the .inf file.
   
   National Instruments recommends you choose a specific and meaningful directory path, such as [Windows Volume]\<Company Name>\Drivers\<Driver Name>\<Revision> or [VXI PnP OS]\<Driver Name>\<Revision>. Your .inf file must not be installed to a directory containing any other .inf files, or installation may fail. You should not explicitly install your file to the Windows .inf store; it will be implicitly registered and copied to the Windows .inf store during installation.
   
   If you have multiple .inf files, create a separate directory for each .inf file.
3. Add your .inf file to the directory you just created.
4. Build the distribution.

Note  If you are creating .inf files for a USB device and want to support both Windows 2000/XP and Windows Vista 32/Vista 64 editions, you must create two separate LabWindows/CVI installers, one for each .inf file generated.