Serial confusion

[pp42]

I'm trying to move an application from my desktop computer to a laptop so I can actually test my program using a full experimental set up located in the basement, the program is, for now, a very simple RS-232 program that writes a command over RS-232 and then waits for an answer.
The laptop has limited resources so I would like to minimize the amount of programs I have to install (I don't want to install the full LabVIEW).
I have been able to do the "Make exe" thing and did realize that I had to include an installer, I have also remembered to check the "include serial" check box under advanced.
When I try to install everything worked fine and when I run a program that doesn't use the serial port it's OK.
But when I try to run the serial application the available port are not the familiar COM1 but instead of the style: ASRL1:INSTR and the program behaves funny.
The serial port works fine if I use the Hyperterminal in windows.
I think I'm just missing to check a check box somewhere or to install some kind of support but I have no idea of what or where.
I'm really grateful for suggestion of what to do or where to look for more information.

(I'm using 7.1 and Win XP is running on both machines)

[tst]

ASRL1:INSTR is COM1 so first, make sure the serial settings in your program are set correctly (using the configure VI). If they are the same as those in HyperTerminal, then you need to install the NI serial interface called VISA. Apparently LV doesn't install it automatically even if you ask it to include serial support. I think it should be included in the LV run-time engine, which I believe can be found on your LV CD. If it isn't, search this site for "visa install".

[Jimmie_A.]

Hello!

The reason you get these errors is due to the fact that VISA references native serial ports and the parallel port on a computer as ASRL1::INSTR, ASRL2::INSTR, and ASRL10::INSTR, respectively. Aliases, like COM1 and such however, are assigned by MAX. These alias names are not automatically transferred to the Run-Time computer. So if your program refers to serial port as COM1 or COM2, VISA Run-Time engine will not recognize the name automatically. To create these aliases in a computer with the VISA Run-Time Engine, edit or replace visaconf.ini file, the file that stores the alias information. The default location for visaconf.ini is C:\VXIpnp\WinNT\NIvisa.

You can read more about it on these links:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/F9C1DD5BFA4DCAC986256CA90066D184?OpenDocument

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/DB5E81EAFC9A463886256AA8005EA2B1?OpenDocument

Regards,
Jimmie A.
Applications Engineer, National Instruments