Driver Install Issue: LabWindows Distributions (MSI) Uninstalls Drivers unrelated to the current install

[Minesh]

Something really odd with LabWindows/CVI 2010, win7 Professional.

1. I built a bunch of class and specific class drivers in LabWindows/CVI 2010 and created MSI files.

2. I start with one instrument A and installed its class and specific drivers. All good.

3. When I move to the next instrument B, a class driver B install will uninstall the previous class driver A in (2) and then install class driver B. Same happens with the specific driver.

4. This happens with all my drivers. The one before is uninstalled.

5. If I go back to a instrument A, a MSI error will pop up saying I have a later version of Driver A, please uninstall and re-install. But A has already been uninstalled. There is no trace of it on the system.

Is this a licensing issue? This is baffling. I have rebuilt all the drivers and tried it several times on other machines and the same behavior. The last time I looked at these drivers was last year (July 2013) on Win7 and there were no problems at that time.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Minesh

[LindsW]

Hi,

I want to clarify what exactly you are doing.  It sounds like these are your own custom drivers that you have created, is this correct?  Or are you trying to install different versions of an NI driver?  Also, do drivers A and B have the same name?  Also, what are you doing between using the drivers - are you loading them in CVI?  Are you restarting CVI?

On the other hand, if you are installing NI drivers, then the behavior you are seeing sounds correct.  Let’s say you install one of our drivers, and then install a newer version.  It will upgrade the driver so that you only have access to the newest version.  If you try to downgrade and go back to a previous version, it will give you an error like the one you describe.  If you need to go back to a previous version, you will have to completely uninstall the current version before it will allow you to do this.

Regards,