March 2020
This file contains important information about LabVIEW 2020 for Windows, including system requirements, installation instructions, known issues, and a partial list of bugs fixed for LabVIEW 2020.
Refer to the NI website for the latest information about LabVIEW.
Refer to the labview\readme directory for readme files about LabVIEW add-ons, such as modules and toolkits.
Product Security and Critical Updates
Automating the Installation of NI Products
Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10
Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 8.1
LabVIEW 2020 has the following requirements:
| Windows | Run-Time Engine | Development Environment |
|---|---|---|
| Processor1 | Pentium 4M/Celeron 866 MHz (or equivalent) or later (32-bit) Pentium 4 G1 (or equivalent) or later (64-bit) | Pentium 4M (or equivalent) or later (32-bit) Pentium 4 G1 (or equivalent) or later (64-bit) |
| RAM | 256 MB | 1 GB |
| Screen Resolution | 1024 x 768 pixels | 1024 x 768 pixels |
| Operating System | Windows 10 (version 1909)/8.1 Update 12/7 SP13 Windows Server 2016 Windows Server 2012 R22 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP13 | Windows 10 (version 1909)/8.1 Update 12/7 SP13 Windows Server 2016 Windows Server 2012 R22 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP13 |
| Disk Space | 620 MB | 5 GB (includes default drivers) |
| Color Palette | N/A | LabVIEW and the LabVIEW Help contain 16-bit color graphics. LabVIEW requires a minimum color palette setting of 16-bit color. |
| Temporary Files Directory | N/A | LabVIEW uses a directory for storing temporary files. NI recommends that you have several megabytes of disk space available for this temporary directory. |
| Adobe Reader | N/A | You must have Adobe Reader 7.0 or later installed to search PDF versions of all LabVIEW manuals. |
| 1 LabVIEW and LabVIEW Run-Time Engine require processors of the Pentium 4M/G1 generation or later, which are capable of executing SSE2 instructions. 2 NI software installs VC2015 Runtime and .NET 4.6.2. Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 require Microsoft updates to support these items. Refer to Microsoft KB2919442 and KB2919355 for more information about how to install these updates. 3 NI software is signed with a SHA-256 certificate. Windows 7 SP1, Windows Embedded Standard 7 SP1, and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 require Microsoft updates to support SHA-256. Refer to Microsoft KB3033929 for more information about how to install this security update. Note
| ||
NI installs software using NI Package Manager. If you do not already have NI software installed, LabVIEW installs NI Package Manager to handle the installation of your NI software. Visit ni.com/r/NIPMDownload to download NI Package Manager. Refer to the NI Package Manager Manual for more information about installing, removing, and upgrading NI software using NI Package Manager.
Notes
If you install software using the LabVIEW Platform media, insert the LabVIEW Platform media and follow the onscreen instructions to install LabVIEW, modules, toolkits, and drivers. When prompted, log in to your NI User Account to activate your NI products. If you are managing your license with a volume license server, you should receive your volume license file by email.
Refer to the LabVIEW Upgrade Notes for information about protecting existing VIs and projects before installing a new version of LabVIEW, as well as upgrade and compatibility issues and a complete list of new features in LabVIEW 2020.
The rules for how LabVIEW selects cluster elements when you use a Bundle By Name function, Unbundle By Name function, or Unbundle / Bundle Elements Border Node have improved. The improvements may cause existing code to behave differently than you expect when you use these nodes inside a malleable VI. Visit ni.com/r/eakjbu for more information about how these changes impact existing code.
Visit ni.com/security to view and subscribe to receive security notifications about NI products. Visit ni.com/critical-updates for information about critical updates from NI.
Use the LabVIEW Platform media to install modules and toolkits supported by LabVIEW 2020 (32-bit) and LabVIEW 2020 (64-bit). When run on Windows (64-bit), LabVIEW (64-bit) provides access to more memory than a 32-bit operating system or a 32-bit application can provide. LabVIEW (64-bit) is available in English only.
Refer to the NI website for information about drivers compatible with LabVIEW 2020 (64-bit). For GPIB devices, you must use at least NI-488.2 2.6 for Windows. Refer to the specific hardware documentation for more information about compatibility with LabVIEW (64-bit).
LabVIEW 2020 (64-bit) supports a limited number of modules and toolkits. The following table compares the modules and toolkits supported by LabVIEW (32-bit) and LabVIEW (64-bit).
| Product | LabVIEW 2020 (32-bit) | LabVIEW 2020 (64-bit) |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Signal Processing Toolkit | ✓ | ✓ |
| Control Design and Simulation Module | ✓ | ✓1 |
| Database Connectivity Toolkit | ✓ | ✓ |
| Datalogging and Supervisory Control Module | ✓ | — |
| Desktop Execution Trace Toolkit for Windows | ✓ | ✓ |
| Digital Filter Design Toolkit | ✓ | ✓ |
| FPGA Module | ✓ | ✓ |
| MathScript Module | ✓ | ✓2 |
| Real-Time Module | ✓ | — |
| Report Generation Toolkit for Microsoft Office | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sound and Vibration Toolkit | ✓ | ✓ |
| Unit Test Framework Toolkit | ✓ | ✓ |
| VI Analyzer Toolkit | ✓ | ✓ |
| Vision Development Module | ✓ | ✓ |
| 1 The Control Design and Simulation Module (64-bit) does not support the System Identification Assistant, Control Design Assistant, and real-time targets. 2 The MathScript Module (64-bit) does not support the libraries class of MathScript Module functions. | ||
Refer to the readme of each product for more information about 32-bit and 64-bit support, system requirements, installation instructions, and activation. For information about products not listed in the previous table, refer to the user documentation of those products.
You can access the software and documentation known issues list online. Visit LabVIEW 2020 Known Issues for an up-to-date list of known issues.
The following items are the IDs and titles of a subset of issues fixed in LabVIEW 2020. This is not an exhaustive list of issues fixed in the current version of LabVIEW. If you have a Bug ID, you can search this list to validate that the issue has been fixed.
| ID | Fixed Issue |
|---|---|
| 917628 | LabVIEW Runtime Engine encounters Worker Thread Limit when using web services on Linux RT-based cRIO. |
| 931175 | EXE including 'Std Deviation and Variance' VI is unloadable. |
| 984819 | Incorrect behavior when using a Boolean control from the System palette. |
| 984834 | LabVIEW Application Builder fails to build a Source Distribution on Windows when using some specific vi.lib VIs that contain non-Windows components. |
| 984861 | When making multiple calls to Python function in a For Loop, the Python execution treats the passed data as a list, rather than a NumPy array. |
| 985551 | Hovering over an override method in the Project Explorer does not show parent class description if the VI has empty description. |
| 985552 | Special characters (\r, \n, etc.) are not correctly converted to JSON when using LabVIEW Web services. |
| 985554 | Calling a Channel Write VI by reference in a loop results in a compiler error. |
Visit LabVIEW 2020 Patch Details for detailed information about all patches available for LabVIEW 2020 and issues fixed in each patch.
Refer to the LabVIEW Help, accessible by selecting Help»LabVIEW Help from LabVIEW, for information about LabVIEW 2020.
Select Help»Find Examples from LabVIEW to launch the NI Example Finder. You can modify an example VI to fit an application, or you can copy and paste from one or more examples into a VI that you create.
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.
If the NI product you are installing uses Microsoft .NET 4.6.2, 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 4.6.2 separately before you install NI software.
For more information about automating the installation of NI products, refer to Automating an Installer in the NI Package Manager manual.
Microsoft Windows 10 is the latest version of the Windows operating system and features significant changes compared to previous versions. Windows 10 introduces several new capabilities and also combines features from both Windows 7 and Windows 8. For more information about NI support for Windows 10, visit ni.com/windows10.
When you install NI software on Microsoft Windows 8.1, you will notice a few additional tiles in the Apps view, including shortcuts to NI application software products such as NI LabVIEW, Measurement & Automation Explorer (NI MAX), and NI Launcher. For more information about NI support for Windows 8.1, visit ni.com/windows8.
LabVIEW will drop support for Windows 7 (32- and 64-bit), Windows Server 2008 R2, and all 32-bit Windows operating systems starting in 2021. Versions of this product that ship after May 1, 2021, may not install or execute correctly on these operating systems. For detailed information about NI operating system support, visit ni.com/r/win32bitsupport.
The LabVIEW Robotics Module, LabVIEW SoftMotion Module, and SignalExpress have reached the end of their product life cycle.
The following table contains the end-of-life (EOL) milestones for these products. You can access support for these products through the last order date at ni.com/support. After the last order date, NI continues to offer technical support through the end-of-support date via online discussion forums only at forums.ni.com.
| Product | Last Release | Last Order Date | End of Support Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| LabVIEW Robotics Module | 2019 | June 30, 2020 | June 2023 |
| LabVIEW SoftMotion Module | 2018 | June 30, 2020 | June 2021 |
| SignalExpress | 2015 | July 31, 2020 | July 2024 |
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End-User License Agreements and Third-Party Legal Notices
You can find end-user license agreements (EULAs) and third-party legal notices in the following locations after installation:
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Refer to the NI Trademarks and Logo Guidelines at ni.com/trademarks for information on NI trademarks. Other product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.
Patents
For patents covering the NI products/technology, refer to the appropriate location: Help»Patents in your software, the patents.txt file on your media, or the NI Patent Notice at ni.com/patents.
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