Give us control over the fast startup setting when building an installer

[altenbach]

If you install anything (anything!) from NI on a computer that runs windows 8 or newer, you will get bugged by a dialog to disable fast startup. The option is enabled by default, no matter what you install. It will popup with every single install, even minor patches, and even if this option has been intentionally unchecked in the original installation to be patched. If you don't want to disable fast startup, it is a never-ending whack-a-mole of these dialogs. (... but the need to disable fast startup for some scenarios is a more general problem that NI needs to address. It could be a new idea, but I think NI is aware of this problem. It might even be something that Microsoft could address such that devices don't get lost in the scenarios where fast startup causes problems)

This idea is centered around executables that we built and distribute via installers..

While this option (=disabling fast startup) can be useful when certain DAQ hardware is used, it makes absolutely no sense for other LabVIEW programs. Most of my programs don't use any DAQ hardware and it is not reasonable to globally cripple every single computer that has them installed. People tend to click [next] without reading, assuming that the defaults are typically reasonable.

Currently, this install query can be silenced by editing the setup.ini and changing the entry "WinFastStartup=1" to "WinFastStartup=0". I have built dozens of applications over the last few days and it is becoming seriously annoying to constantly remember to do that.

I suggest that the installer builder should get another checkbox that allows us to set that option permanently. Here is how it could look like.

• Checking that box will give the current experience where the installer asks to disable fast startup. (it could even be checked by default to mimic the current default behavior)
• Leaving the box unchecked will skip that dialog and will not disable fast startup.

IDEA SUMMARY: Allow us to configure the fast startup dialog from the installer builder tool.

[Sam_Sharp]

While I agree that it should be possible to supress the dialogue when installing NI products and that the option should only appear when installing an appropriate product, I definitely don't agree that there should be an option in the installer build specification that can modify Windows/OS settings without the users knowledge.

If anything, I would build a check into my application that checks if fast startup is enabled and if it is, and I'm using affected hardware, I would prompt the user to modify the appropriate setting.

[altenbach]

> I definitely don't agree that there should be an option in the installer build specification that can modify Windows/OS settings without the users knowledge.

Definitely! Thats' what I meant. Sorry, for not being clear enough.

The installer builder will have a checkbox with two options as shown in the image:

1. If it is checked, it will retain the current behavior and ask if fast startup should be disabled (same as WinFastStartup=1 in setup ini)
2. If it is unchecked, it will not change any such existing setting and not even ask. (same as WinFastStartup=0 in setup.ini).

I have tested it multiple times with the following two relevant setup.ini settings

[Dialogs]
WinFastStartup=0 (changed from the default WinFastStartup=1. This is the only change!)

[WinFastStartupDialog]
CheckboxDefaultState=1 (this is the default and I did not change it. I assume if defines the initial state of the dialog IF the dialog is shown)

In this scenario (WinFastStartup=0), the dialog does not appear and the existing fast startup setting is left untouched. That's what I want. Nothing is ever modified without the users knowledge.

[altenbach]

Yes, maybe for clarity, the checkbox could be called more precisely:

"[ ] Ask to disable fast startup (Windows 8+ only)."

[Hooovahh]

I voted for this idea a while ago, but didn't think it was that big of a deal because I could just add a Post Build VI to the installer that sets the INI file to disable the disabling of fast startup...to my surprise I found that you can't run a post build VI on an installer so I made an idea for it here.