Although the installer for LabVIEW 6.1 says it will run the program after installation, it really runs the program moments before the installer has time to exit. As we use Microsoft Installers and they do not allow for 2 installers to be at a critical point at the same time so you have to include a small batch file that calls the secondary installer and then exits. The main installer will then be at the completed point and the secondary installer will be running (it's window may not be above the main installer). With the batch file you could also delete secondary installer file afterwards or run a third installer and you could pass parameters to the installer (i.e. don't prompt or don't reboot)
If you want to run an installer that is a .msi file your co
mmand line can't just be the msi file name, because a .msi file is not an executable. To run a .msi installer you must call msiexec.exe with a command line option of /i and the path to the .msi file. And since you don't want to install msiexec (it is in the system folder) you must write a batch file to call it and put that batch file in the executable to run. For the command line options you could pass MSI variables like "[INSTALLDIR]" or "[SystemFolder]" so the batch file can find msiexec and the msi file. An example batch file might look like:
"%2msiexec.exe" /i "%1"
exit
Where the command line was "[INSTALLDIR]themsifile.msi" "[SystemFolder]"
See msdn for more info on msiexec's command line options.
Jeremy Braden
National Instruments
