topic Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full in LabVIEW

Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

Mike@SensorSwitch — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 17:52:13 GMT

I am currently using Windows 7 with Labview 2010. I am trying to execute opening a website from the system exec.vi. When I run the VI I get error 2 saying the memory is full. I ran this same VI in Windows XP with Labview 2010 and it worked fine. I have tried increasing the expected output size memory for the system exec.vi as high as possible. It appears Windows 7 handles this differently than Windows XP. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

Mike

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

Andrew_B — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 13:29:50 GMT

Hello Mike,

This is Andrew Brown, an Applications Engineer from National Instruments. After researching your issue, I found an article called Error 2 (Memory Full) When Using the System Exec VI that points to a possible solution. With your application, the issue is probably related to syntax more than memory usage. Some general background on using the System Exec VI can be found at the LabVIEW help page and How do I Execute a Windows Command in LabVIEW.

Please let me know if you have additional questions about these resources. Thanks, and have a great day!

Regards,

Andrew Brown

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

smercurio_fc — Fri, 01 May 2026 21:06:21 GMT

Why not just use the "Open URL in Default Browser" VI that ships with LabVIEW?

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

Matthew_Kelton — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:44:16 GMT

If you are running Win7 64 bit, this may be your issue:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/176706

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

Mike@SensorSwitch — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:46:32 GMT

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the response. I guess I should explain my problem in more detail. I am trying to execute SVN Turtoise commands in labview. I have the VI point to the SVN repository URL and gather the information about the files. When it finds the files it then updates them locally on my computer. Attached is a picture of the VI that I am currently using. The VI fails when the system exec.vi is run saying Error 2: Memory is full. I have run this VI on a separate computer running windows xp and it exectues perfectly. Let me know if this helps claify the problem or if you have additional solutions. Thanks

Mike

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

Mike@SensorSwitch — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:47:02 GMT

Nope, running Windows 7 - 32 Bit but thanks.

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

smercurio_fc — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:48:21 GMT

@Matthew Kelton wrote:

If you are running Win7 64 bit, this may be your issue:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/176706

Ah, so it's all Chris' fault! We should have known!!

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

smercurio_fc — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:51:41 GMT

Mike@SensorSwitch wrote:

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the response. I guess I should explain my problem in more detail.

Yeah, that usually helps.

Your most likely issue is a path issue. The System Exec command is equivalent to you doing a Start -> Run and entering a command there. If it doesn't work there, it won't work with System Exec. System Exec does not run in a command shell. Hence, sometimes commands need to be preceded with "cmd /c" or "cmd /k", depending on the behavior that you want. You should verify that "svn" is actually in your PATH. If not, then the command won't work via Start -> Run, and thus will not work with System Exec.

P.S. You may wish to look at JKI's TortoiseSVN Toolkit, though I don't know if you're using TortoiseSVN.

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

Matthew_Kelton — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:53:09 GMT

Thanks,

clicked on the user instead of the message:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Problem-Using-quot-msg-quot-command-with-quot-System-Exec-vi/m-p/1537932#M570371

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

Mike@SensorSwitch — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:55:08 GMT

Why would it work on the Windows XP computer and not the Windows 7?

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

smercurio_fc — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:18:02 GMT

Mike@SensorSwitch wrote:

Why would it work on the Windows XP computer and not the Windows 7?

Your PATH environment variables may not be the same. Have you checked?

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

Mike@SensorSwitch — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:16:07 GMT

I have not check this. How would I check the path variables? Thanks

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

smercurio_fc — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:49:57 GMT

Did you try Google? Right-click on My Computer, then select Properties. Go to the Advanced tab for Windows XP. For Windows 7 click on the Advanced system settings link. Then click on the Environment Variables button. This will list system environment variables and user-specific environment variables. The "Path" environment variable is in the system environment variables section.

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

Matthew_Kelton — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:04:35 GMT

You can also open a command prompt and type

path

You can also try to run your command from this command prompt and confirm you get no errors.

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

Mike@SensorSwitch — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:48:54 GMT

That worked. I checked the PATH environment variables and they were not the same. I added that path environment variable I needed and now it works! Thanks for the help.

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

BVSmith — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 01:07:02 GMT

Andrew, on a related note, the VI provided by NI: https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-17862

to calculate the disk usage of a windows directory using the System Exec VI also fails with error 2.

This VI used to work, but no longer does.

I have tried hacking it with different syntax as suggested in that article you reference, but I can't get it to work.

Has something changed somewhere?

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

rolfk — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 11:40:56 GMT

What LabVIEW bitness are you using? Since you don't specify any path for your DU file I assume you installed it in System32 (or SysWow64 on 64 Bit systems). As such it will only be visible by a 32 bit LabVIEW version. When running it in LabVIEW 64 bit SysWOW64 is not part of the directories that are normally searched by Windows when starting a process without full path.

So move your DU exe into another directory outside of System32 of SysWOW64 and extend the example to provide an additional path control connected to the "working directory" input of System Exec. Pass the directory where your DU exe is located to this path control.

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

BVSmith — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 16:54:35 GMT

I am running LabVIEW 32 bits.

I already tried wiring the working path input to the system exec call but it still throws error 2.

Why doesn't the standard error output show any error from Windows?

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

BVSmith — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 16:59:12 GMT

I just found the solution.

The command passed to the system exec VI must be "cmd /c du -v <dir>", so I submit that NI should change the

"Systernals DU File Directory.vi" which can be found at https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-17862 to do this.

Re: Windows 7 system exec.vi Error 2: Memory Full

Andrzej_R — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 17:13:59 GMT

I had the same problem with Windows 10. Using cmd /c on front of executable I am calling for helped. Thank you !