2015 Built Application Running on Windows 10 - Will it continue to run on Windows 11?

[HeavyHandler747]

Hello there,

I have an application running on a computer that controls some equipment. The computer is running Windows 10. IT wants to update it to Windows 11. 

Should I leave everything unchanged, can I expect the application to continue functioning as is in Windows 11?

I am told the program was built in LV 2015. I am working on getting LV 2015 installed currently... 

Thanks in advance!

[HeavyHandler747]

Edit: The program is actually built on LabVIEW 2019 32 Bit.

[Bob_Schor]

NI says that LabVIEW 2022 Q3 is the first version compatible with Windows 11.  I've just had one of my PCs upgraded, but haven't tried (say) LabV.IEW 2019 with it.  If the code is "vanilla LabVIEW", it might work ...  You may have to wait until you can "do the experiment".  Note that if you do "fancy stuff", or hardware-dependent, or Specialized Toolkit dependent development, you might want to upgrade to, say, LabVIEW 2024.

Note that NI (before Windows 11 came into the picture) tried to allow "old" LabVIEW code (where "old" means "less than 5 years in the past) to run on newer versions, so code you write today in, say, LabVIEW 2022 should be expected to work until 2027 (I might be subtly wrong on the number of years ...).

Bob Schor

[ZYOng]

You can Configure LabVIEW Executable to Run with Higher Run-Time Engine Versions

However, installers and executables are only guaranteed to work on the operating system they are built on.  For example, a Windows 10 installer or executable may not work as expected on a different Windows version. See Running Executables or Installers on Different Windows Versions

[rolfk]

LabVIEW itself is seldom a problem. A lot of LabVIEW was built against Windows 2000 and NT, and NI has been relatively determined to not always use the latest and greatest Windows APIs, or at least provide an optional fallback to earlier Windows versions if they added a new functionality. I have tested even LabVIEW 7.1 applications to run on Windows 11, mostly for curiosity and not for a real use case. The biggest problem tended to be to get the actual installer to jump through the additional security hoops in Windows 11. Once it was installed it run surprisingly well, with sometimes some minor UI appearance trouble.

The main problem are drivers. Any hardware since Windows NT requires device drivers to be operable and the device driver interface in Windows has gone through several substantial redesigns since then. And even if the architecture doesn't always change between Windows versions, Microsoft is a lot more restrictive about backwards compatibility if it affects security in any way.

So your LabVIEW application may be pretty happy to run on Windows 11, but your old DAQmx driver installation may hiccup, or your obscure 3rd party hardware driver which was developed back in 2008 may just refuse to even load rightout. No way to say for sure upfront, even if you gave us an exact list of all the hardware components involved. 

[HeavyHandler747]

Thanks for your input and info. I appreciate your time!