You can go to www.ni.com and get a complete list of all the features but briefly, the full version adds analysis, signal processing, custom graphics and animation, CIN/DLL tools. The professional version adds the applicaton builder, source code control, a differencing tool, and polymorphic VI creation.
MAX is for NI hardware and IVI drivers - not LabVIEW instrument drivers. You say that you're using the AI functions which implies an NI DAQ board so the board should already be visible in MAX as well as the channels.
I believe all versions of LabVIEW can create a custom palette. On your function palette, click the Options button and see if there's a Edit Palettes button. If there is, the LabVIEW help can guide you in the creation of your own .mnu fil
es that you can save and distribute.
The application builder (which is also available separately) includes an installer that could probably be used for driver installation but I've never tried it for that. When I've created LabVIEW instrument drivers, all I usually did was zip up the LLB and mnu files, place them in the instr.lib folder and then unzip them.
