Is there a way to call an .exe (non-LabVIEW, such as Notepad) in a child windown on the front panel?

[Sparticus]

Matthew:  Your point about starting in on a difficult project is well-taken.  However, it seems to be the best option available to me at this time.  I checked out the example you posted, and was able to make it move my application into the front panel.  There is, however, a problem.  Whereas with Notepad, the window remains active (you can write into the document, save, etc.), with my application the window seems to become just a snapshot.  The various menu buttons change color when I hover over them, but don't drop down when clicked.  The application reads data from an instrument and displays a real-time bar graph when outside LabVIEW, but inside it doesn't update. 

Any ideas on why this is or what to do about it? 

Thanks.

[Matthew_Kelton]

I can't be much help.  I have only done it a couple of times and had no problems.  I actually had to remove functionality by hiding window title bars and menus.  This may be one of those situations Rolf was speaking of.

The other option you have is to try to set the window to always be on top.  This way you can have it not disappear behind the LabVIEW window if you click in the window.  It won't minimize, maximize or restore with your LabVIEW window, although you could use some coding with Events to make it do what you want.

[danielch]

Although this topic is more than 10 years old, it has been very helpful to me.

In the company that I work with, we are in the process of standardizing test software, we plan to use TestStand with a graphical user interface (GUI) made in LabVIEW, which has sections established to dynamically load the front panel of any VI. The problem is that there are users of LabWindows/CVI and their programs (graphs, charts, etc.) cannot be inserted in the GUI. This may be the solution to be able to insert a CVI UIR Panel into a LabVIEW front panel, without losing its functionality.

I am attaching an example based on the solution provided by Matthew (thank you), where you can insert a CVI panel in the LabVIEW front panel, a notepad or a cmd. It can also be useful to someone else.

LabVIEW 2018
LabWindows / CVI 2017
Windows 10

[StevenD]

I ran across this thread looking for a similar solution. While I will say, I do not think this will work for my particular problem, the behavior I found running Matt's code was quite surprising.

Using his example setup of having an untitled document open in notepad, after running the "Child Window Example.vi" notepad is brought into the VI.

There are several things of interest here:

1. Notepad is fully running, IE I can type, and save the file
2. Task Manager does not see that notepad is running.
3. Minimizing notepad brings it to the bottom of the VI, similar to Windows 7 (??) and before behavior
4. The style of the notepad window is that of Windows 7. I am running Windows 10.
5. The vi is no longer running, but notepad is.... somehow.

This code seems to turn the LabVIEW IDE into a virtual machine, at least for the program notepad.

[zou]

These are expected behaviors.  Task Manager only see top level windows, not child window.  All child window minimizes to the bottom of the parent window by default.

Be careful when you make a VI front as a child window of another VI.  Only LabVIEW knows front panel and diagram are a pair,  Windows doesn't know that.  When the parent window closes, it closes all its child windows.

A diagram window without front panel window will cause LabVIEW crash.