Cannot install LabVIEW (and Package Manager inside Windows 11 Sandbox

[vix]

To test if everything works fine, I tried to install Package Manager (offline installer 2025 Q4) inside the Sandbox of my Windows 11 (both 2024H2 and 2025H2).

At the beginning the installation is extremely slow (it takes minutes) then it blocks forever.

And I can't install.

What is the reason for this?

[Bob_Schor]

In my two-decade experience with LabVIEW, one of the most "challenging" aspect is the relative "difficulty" of installation.  When students used to ask me "Can I install LabVIEW on my own PC", I would say "Yes," (we had the appropriate Academic License) "but bring me your Laptop and let me install it for you".  

I have no direct experience with the Windows Sandbox, so I looked it up.  It is a minimal, "no-frills" version of Windows designed for loading and testing software in an isolated system, and then restoring its original "no-frills" state when you exit from the Sandbox.  So if you want to test LabVIEW code in a Sandbox, you must first install LabVIEW, then run your test, and stay in the Sandbox (presumably not returning to the underlying Windows machine that is "hosting" the Sandbox), because once you exit, you return the Sandbox to its original "No LabVIEW" configuration.  For a persistent Test platform, you need either a separate (inexpensive) Windows PC or a Virtual Machine with Windows on which to install your test version of LabVIEW.

Final point -- Unless you are going to configure multiple versions of LabVIEW (for example, one with minimal addons, one with LabVIEW Real Time, one with LabVIEW Vision) for different scenarios, there is no point in downloading the Offline Installer (unless your Internet is so slow that you need to schedule the download overnight or want to install on a dozen machines at the same time).

Bob Schor

[vix]

@Bob_Schor: everything you say it's true and well known to me.

But my question is different: I don't understand why the installation can't be completed.

I need to test inside a Sandbox before installing on the host Windows 11 (company policy).

And this is for the whole LabVIEW ecosystem.

But if you send to me a LabVIEW application you developed (let's assume this as an example), I need to to the same: installing and testing inside the sandbox before installing on the host Windows 11 (in case I decide to do).

And the installation of your application (+ Run Time Engine and so on) has the same issue.

I wrote about LabVIEW and Package Manager because they're installation packages available to everyone, so everyone (NI) can reproduce the issue and find what happens.

If I had written about an issue while instaklling a custom application, someone would have anwered to me "there is some fault in your application"...

I hope that now the situation is much more clear

[softball]

Hi

Installing LabVIEW development system in a Sandbox seems strange, IT policy or not.

I like googling such issues and its findings seems plausible when asked : anyone ever installed labview into windows sandbox ?

Yes, people have tried installing LabVIEW in

 Windows Sandbox, but it often fails or presents significant challenges due to its complex dependencies, deep registry hooks, and specific driver/hardware requirements, making the isolated Sandbox environment incompatible with the installer's extensive system modifications and component installations, as highlighted in NI Community discussions, GitHub issues, and Reddit posts. While running some LabVIEW executables might work if built specifically for it, the full development environment's installation typically struggles within the sandbox.

Why It's Difficult

• Registry Modifications: LabVIEW heavily modifies the Windows Registry, which Sandboxes are designed to prevent or isolate, causing installation failures.
• Hardware & Drivers: LabVIEW needs access to specific hardware (like DAQ cards, cameras) and installs drivers (NI-DAQmx, VISA) that don't work well or at all in the isolated Sandbox.
• Complex Dependencies: It relies on many other NI components and Microsoft Office/ActiveX versions, making the whole dependency chain hard to manage in an isolated space.
• Installation Process: The installer often checks for existing components or tries to make system-wide changes, triggering errors in the Sandbox. 

What Users Experience

• Installers failing mid-way.
• Errors related to missing files or components.
• Inability to detect or interact with hardware. 

Alternatives/Workarounds

• Use a Virtual Machine (VM): Install LabVIEW (and compatible OS) in a full VM (like Hyper-V, VMware, VirtualBox) for better isolation than a Sandbox, as mentioned in this Reddit thread.
• Build Installers with Dependencies: Create custom installers that bundle the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine and necessary drivers for deployment to clean machines, according to this NI article. 

What I would suggest is using a Disk Image tool, like Acronis True Image :

  1. Have IT create a clean Windows installation without NI software. And image it.

  2. Restore that image on a partition on a separate computer and install whatever software needed to run LabVIEW.

  3. When satisfied with the checking, restore the clean image.

Regards

[vix]

Hi @softball,

sorry for the confusion.

I wrote about LabVIEW because anyone can try and see what happens.

But my issue:

installing a custom LabVIEW application through an Installer with Dependencies: custom installer that bundle the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine and necessary drivers for deployment to clean machines failis in this same way.

I've been using the Sandbox approach for years (more than 10) and everything worked (on a Windows 11 host too, until a couple of months ago).

For sure now it's some Windows 11 update, but it's difficult to understand why.

LabVIEW.based installers are the only ones they have issues inside Sandbox (and I tested a lot of different software - small and big, with and without hardware, with and without registry modifications, ...). All of them work inside Sandbox.

As far as I know it could be an issue with the tool that produces the installer, and not with LabVIEW ecosystem itself.

My worry is this one: until a couple of months ago, LabVIEW-based installers worked both on host PC and Sandbox. After some Win 11 updates the don't work in the Sandbox anymore. But nobody cares about it. In a couple of months, another Win 11 update will break on the host PC too.

An at that point a lot of user will write here complaining about this.

Now we have time to investigate. At that point evweryone will be in a hurry, with high pressure on the shoulders.

I can be wrong, but I've been using NI software for most than 20 years and I have some feelings (maybe wrong).

[softball]

Hi again

If you are having trouble running in 'normal' Windows 11 too, then the problem could be security related as this have been tightened in both 24H2 and 25H2. Known issue.

But have you considered the LTSC versions of Windows 10 and 11 ?

Even the old Windows 10 2019 LTSC, a feature locked version of 1809, gets security updates to 2029. There are newer LTSC versions too. Works fine with CrowdStrike if that is relevant.

Regards 

[vix]

Hi @softball

on the PC that we delivered to our customers we use Windows IoT Enterptise LTSC (10 or 11, different LTSC versions).

Well known.

On my working PC it's the IT that decides which OS should I have, which upgrades and what I can do.

And it's not a LTSC version.

[softball]

Hi

"On my working PC it's the IT that decides which OS should I have, which upgrades and what I can do."

I pitty you ..

Regards