CVI Distribution Kit - Uninstalling and Installing Drivers

[Darren Draper]

I am using LabWindows/CVI 7.0, and have developed a PXI driver. I use the CVI Create Distribution Kit to generate my driver's installation kit. However, with the generated installation kit I find that I have to run SETUP.EXE twice, once to remove the existing PXI driver installation, and a second time to install the updated PXI driver.

I wondered if there is a way of creating the installation kit so that when SETUP.EXE is run it removes any existing PXI driver installation first, and then installs the updated PXI driver.

I have seen other vendor's drivers install in this way, and would be keen to make my PXI driver installations work in this way too.

[Mert_A.]

Hi Darren,

Unfortunately, CVI 7.0 (or 7.1) does not provide support for installer versioning, which is needed to achieve the upgrade behavior you are after.  CVI 8.0, which is now available, has this feature.

The only "versioning" control you have is the "Installer GUID" property found in the Advanced dialog of the Create Distribution Kit settings.  Changing this value allows side-by-side installations of different builds of you installer (ie, previous installations will not be uninstalled), but unless you are changing the locations of the installed files and the name of your installation (the value of the Installation Location Sub Folder), it is generally not a good thing to do.

If you are really interested in making your installers upgrade each other, you will need to do a moderate bit of .msi editing (using a third-party tool like Orca or Wise for Windows Installer) on each installer you build.

Sorry it's not better news, but hopefully you'll look into CVI 8.0.

Mert A.
National Instruments

Message Edited by Mert A. on 11-08-2005 01:08 PM

[daijoubu]

You can also check out the WiX project. It's a full featured windows installer released as open source by Microsoft.

Rob