How do I set up an installer to load device drivers?

[Japper]

I am attempting to create an installer in Labview 8.2 and have a couple of questions...

I have a VI that uses a serial device that I would like to have set up when I run
this installer to deploy my VI on a target system.

In the past, I have included a utility to load in the advanced section but as far as I can tell,

this device uses two sys files that are located in my Windows\System32\Drivers folder

(on an XP system) as these files are displayed when I look that the driver details in the

device manager device driver details.

How do I set this up so that these files are copied into the target systems's System32\drivers

folders so that the device is recognized and loaded when the serial device is connected to the target system?

Also, when should I connect the serial device to the target system, before the install, during or after?

Thanks

[Zach J]

Hello Japper,

Do you know if you are using NI-VISA to communicate with youer serial device?  If you are using NI-VISA, you will need to include the NI-VISA Run-Time as an Additional Installer in your Installer Specification.  If you have any system files in the Windows\System32\Drivers folder, I would check to ensure they are separate from NI-VISA before trying to include them.  You may run into some issues with including them in a new installation because they are located in a Windows system folder.  Do you know whether the drivers were installed by default in Windows or if they were installed by a separate installer?  What hardware are you communicating with?  

It is not recommended to try and include drivers from Windows\System32\Drivers because they are likely connected to other system components.  

As far as when the device should be connected to the target system, I would suggest after the install, but before the program is run.

If you can tell me a little more about your hardware setup and what you are using to communicate, I may be able to provide some more useful recommendations.  

[Japper]

Thanks Zach-

I was playing around with this yesterday afternoon and found a driver for this device. I set this up

to run in the advanced section of my installer and the device could then be recognized by the PC.

I added the NI-VISA support to export the alias that I gave that serial port and once it was loaded,

all I had to do was change the serial port to COM11 and the application now loads and runs just fine.

Thank you once again for your help! 

[Japper]

One more question popped up about this process...

Is it possible to have the installer create a folder that will be used by the application for storing test results?

I wish to create the following folder:

C:\ControlPanel

Thanks

[Zach J]

Hi Japper,

The easiest way to have the installer create a folder like that is to go to the Destinations category in the Build Specification and add the folder as a path to the [Windows Volume] destination.  You will then need to copy some kind of file to it to ensure it is created during the build.  To do this, I would suggest creating a blank text file, adding it to your project, and copying it to that directory in the Source Files category.  This will ensure the directory is created.  

Alternatively, you could have your program check to see if the directory exists on start.  If it does not exist, the program can then create it.  

Lastly, a final option would be to create a batch file (*.bat) that can be run at the end of the installation.  In the batch file, you could create the directory.  Just remember that with either of these last two options, many people do not have a C:\ that they install programs to, so you would need to use relative paths.

[Japper]

Thanks Zach-

How do I select a folder to be \Cpanel off the root folder of the PC that this installer is being run on?

I only see the following destination folders but do not know which one would correspond with the

C:\ path with my subfolder ....

[Zach J]

Hi Japper,

The [WindowsVolume] destination would be whatever drive contains Windows on it.  In most cases this would be the drive I think you would want to create your folder on.  You can select this from the list on the right in your build specification and click the "New Folder" icon at the bottom of that selection window.  Name the folder to what you need it to be, then move your file into the folder.