NI-VISA 2022 Q3 Readme

July 2022

This file contains installation instructions and compatibility information for NI-VISA 2022 Q3.

You can find more release information on ni.com.

  • NI-VISA Release Notes: Known issues, bugs fixed since the last release, and other notes about this release
  • NI-VISA Manuals: New features, behavior changes, and other documentation

Overview

Supported Operating Systems

Application Software Support

Installation Instructions

Product Security and Critical Updates

New Features

Accessing the Documentation

Finding Examples

Automating the Installation of NI Products

NI no longer supports Phar Lap ETS Real-Time Operating System

Legal Information


Overview

NI-VISA is the NI implementation of the Virtual Instrument Software Architecture (VISA), a standard for configuring, programming, and troubleshooting instrumentation systems comprising GPIB, VXI, PXI, Serial, Ethernet, and/or USB interfaces.

Supported Operating Systems and Hardware

NI-VISA 2022 Q3 supports the following platforms:

  • Windows 11
  • Windows 10
  • Windows Server 2022
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows Server 2016
  • NI Linux® Real-Time

While this distribution targets all of these platforms, you can run setup.exe only on the Windows variants.

Visit NI-VISA and OS Compatibility and NI-VISA Features and OS Compatibility pages to view supported operating systems for different releases and feature support for various operating systems.

Note    NI-VISA no longer supports Windows Vista/XP/7/8.1, Windows Server 2003/2008/2012, or any 32-bit Windows operating system. NI-VISA 2022 Q3 will not install or run on an unsupported OS. You cannot deploy or distribute applications that use NI-VISA 2022 Q3 to an unsupported OS. Additionally, after installing NI-VISA 2022 Q3 on a supported OS computer, you cannot create any installers containing any version of LabVIEW, LabWindows™/CVI™, NI TestStand™, or Measurement Studio for an unsupported OS computer.

For detailed information about NI operating system support, visit http://www.ni.com/r/win32bitsupport.

Application Software Support

NI-VISA 2022 Q3 supports the following application software versions, including service packs. If you are not using NI application software, refer to Microsoft Visual Studio Support.

Application Software Versions Supported by NI-VISA
LabVIEW 2019 and later
LabWindows/CVI 2019 and later
Measurement Studio 2019 and later

Microsoft Visual Studio Support for the IVI-Compliant NI-VISA .NET Class Library

If you are using the IVI-compliant NI-VISA .NET Class Library, the .NET 4.6.2 Framework (minimum) is required. You can use the NI-VISA .NET Class Library with the Visual C# or Visual Basic .NET programming languages in any Visual Studio version that can target the .NET 4.0 Framework or later. You can use the NI-VISA .NET Class Library in 32-bit or 64-bit applications.

Microsoft Visual Studio Support for the VisaNS .NET Class Library

Note: The Measurement Studio VisaNS .NET Class Library is being deprecated and superseded by an IVI-compliant NI-VISA .NET Class Library. Refer to the New Features section for more information.

Installation Instructions

Installing NI-VISA for LabVIEW

You can install all of your LabVIEW products—including NI-VISA—using the LabVIEW 2019 or later platform media.

To request additional LabVIEW platform media, visit ni.com/r/media.

Note

  • If Windows Update is enabled, the installation process might hang if Windows Update interferes with the installation of Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Run-Time. Visit ni.com/r/exjq43 for more information and steps to resolve this issue.
  • If you purchased this product with an NI Software Suite or NI Product Bundle, use the installation media that shipped with your purchase to install this product.

Before you install NI-VISA 2022 Q3, NI recommends that you uninstall any versions of VISA prior to NI-VISA 2.0.1.

After uninstalling NI-VISA, some DLLs and executables may remain in the NI-VISA directories. To complete the uninstall process, you must restart your machine.

Note: The uninstaller application does not notify you when rebooting is necessary. If you plan to reinstall NI-VISA, you always should reboot the machine after running the uninstaller.

Updated LabVIEW Compatibility Policy

When installing NI-VISA, the "NI-VISA Support for LabVIEW" package will be recommended if you have already installed LabVIEW 2022 or later and installs to the LVAddons directory. This package supports applications using NI-VISA with LabVIEW 2022 or later.

LVAddons directory location: C:\Program Files\NI\LVAddons

Agilent/HP Controller Support

NI-VISA now works with Agilent/HP GPIB and VXI controller cards. To use this feature, go into MAX, select Tools»NI-VISA»VISA Options, choose the Passports tab, and enable the NiVisaTulip.dll Passport. NI-VISA automatically finds and accesses any GPIB or VXI devices. However, NI-VISA does not configure the Agilent/HP hardware; you still must do that with the Agilent/HP I/O Config utility.

If you have both NI and Agilent/HP controllers in the same system, you must configure the cards at different system addresses, such as GPIB0 and GPIB1. If both vendors try to use the same interface address, NI-VISA reports an error from viFindRsrc or VISA Find Resources.

Creating and Digitally Signing Catalog Files

(Windows 10 or higher) If you generate an INF file using the NI-VISA Driver Wizard, you must create and digitally sign a Windows Catalog (.cat) file before you can install the INF file on a Windows 10 (or higher) machine. For more information about digitally signing a .cat file for Windows 10 (or higher), visit ni.com/r/infwin8.

For more information about creating and signing catalog files, please refer to Creating a Catalog File for Test-Signing a Driver Package.

Product Security and Critical Updates

Visit ni.com/security to view and subscribe to receive security notifications about NI products. For information about critical updates from NI, refer to Available Critical and Security Updates for NI Software.

New Features

NI-VISA 2022 Q3

Added support for LabVIEW 2022 Q3

Accessing the Documentation

Refer to the NI-VISA Help, accessible from LabVIEW by selecting Help>>LabVIEW Help, for information about NI-VISA.

Finding Examples

Select Help>>Find Examples from LabVIEW to launch the NI Example Finder. LabVIEW examples for NI-VISA are located in the labview\examples\Instrument IO\VISA directory. 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.

Automating the Installation of NI Products

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.

NI No Longer Supports Phar Lap ETS Real-Time Operating System

NI Software no longer supports Phar Lap ETS Real-Time Operating System. Versions of this product that ship after May 1, 2022, may not install or execute correctly on this operating system. For high-level information on the support roadmap for Phar Lap and its replacement, NI Linux Real-Time, visit ni.com/r/xf35k1. To find out what hardware is supported on PXI controllers running NI Linux Real-Time, visit ni.com/r/b7g5wi.


Legal Information

Copyright

© 1995–2022 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved.

Under the copyright laws, this publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storing in an information retrieval system, or translating, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of National Instruments Corporation.

NI respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. NI software is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. Where NI software may be used to reproduce software or other materials belonging to others, you may use NI software only to reproduce materials that you may reproduce in accordance with the terms of any applicable license or other legal restriction.

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:

  • Notices are located in the <National Instruments>\_Legal Information and <National Instruments> directories.
  • EULAs are located in the <National Instruments>\Shared\MDF\Legal\license directory.
  • Review <National Instruments>\_Legal Information.txt for information on including legal information in installers built with NI products.

U.S. Government Restricted Rights

If you are an agency, department, or other entity of the United States Government ("Government"), the use, duplication, reproduction, release, modification, disclosure or transfer of the technical data included in this manual is governed by the Restricted Rights provisions under Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.227-14 for civilian agencies and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement Section 252.227-7014 and 252.227-7015 for military agencies.

IVI Foundation Copyright Notice

Content from the IVI specifications reproduced with permission from the IVI Foundation.

The IVI Foundation and its member companies make no warranty of any kind with regard to this material, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The IVI Foundation and its member companies shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.

Trademarks

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.