LabVIEW
Loss of support for older version of Windows
In short what I do:
Some customers will have old versions of Windows. Expect to be able to give them support and fix bugs but not develop any new features. Use a development VM with older LabVIEW for that.
Use newer LabVIEW to develop new versions of the applications. State the Windows requirements for these new versions. If the customer wants new features, they need to install a supported version of Windows. Most customers accept that.
Refer to Windows lifecycle. If Windows is not supported, it is easier to explain that the new version of the application is not supported:
I would not recommend workarounds. They have a tendency to bite back and cause a lot of trouble when you really don't need it. I have been there...
@rolfk wrote:
That works only forthe MSI based installers. The newest LabVIEW versions want to create nipkg installers and there you are pretty out of luck to create installers that still can be installed on anything but 64-bit Windows 10.
Is that from 20 on? Installing 20 changes the installers of older LabVIEW versions too. The ini file key changed for my LV18 installers, after installing LV20. All because of the package manager, IIRC.
I'm already using Inno Setup to wrap the (primitive and limited) LabVIEW executable installer.
I'm sure most of LV's installer functionality (install stuff) can be done in Inno Setup. So I guess at some point I could (have to) invest some time in making that work; putting the exe in Inno Setup, and make it do all the installer stuff. I guess I could even make a framework provider for that 🤔...
Search LabVIEW like a graph! 
I'm not sure about the exact cutoff point to be honest. The software component that is responsible for the entire installer builder functionality in all NI products is the so called Meta Deployment Framework (MDF) component and it disabled support for anything but 64-bit Windows 10 and later in version 20.7.
This framework is invoked by all Installer Builders in all NI products so once you have that on your system, even older LabVIEW versions will be unable to build installers that work on earlier systems. That includes also 32-bit LabVIEW installations. AFAIK all LabVIEW versions since at least around the 8.x series will be affected.
I have also considered the work needed to create a InnoSetup based Installer framework but shied away from that so far aside from using it incidentally as isolated solution.
@rolfk wrote:I have also considered the work needed to create a InnoSetup based Installer framework but shied away from that so far aside from using it incidentally as isolated solution.
A customer likes it (I'm not totally convinced). His requirements (passing modified command line arguments to multiple 3rd party installers).simply are not possible with LV's installer.
I'm afraid I'll have to gain some expertise. I wouldn't mind living without the LV installers, as they take 2 minutes to open. i haven't made VIs for changing all settings, just a few I use often.
wiebe@CARYA wrote:
A customer likes it (I'm not totally convinced).
I was introduced to Inno Setup probably almost 15 years ago, and I was pretty impressed with it then. I use now I use ISTool to make my life easier. It gives a UI and basic functionality to editing the file used in creating the installer. Since then I've used Inno Setup in all kinds of places. My favorite thing to do is make installers for sub components, then make an installer of installers that select the things that are needed. I'll separate the program and the runtime engine into separate installers. And if a program needs a runtime engine it can select it if the user picks to install it. I do still use NI's application builder for making installers, but they are generally for one off applications.
