LabVIEW exe from 1998

[StevenD]

Oh boy! This is a fun one. I would like to just view a LabVIEW program made in 1998. I don't have source code (yay!) and when I run it, I get the virtual instrument icon on my taskbar for a few seconds, then it closes. Any thoughts on where to even start here? I downloaded the oldest runtime engine I could get (2009) and it did nothing. I don't even know how to start troubleshooting this without any errors or anything. There are also two dll's that came with the program I put in the same folder thinking maybe it couldn't find them.

[NIquist]

You may be in luck since the LabVIEW version is so old.  I've never tried any of this but I remember hearing about LabVIEW EXEs being easy to hack since they were really just zipped LLBs or somesuch.  A quick search led me here:  Solved: Deconstructing an LabVIEW Application - uncompressed access to files - NI Community

See where that takes you and hopefully someone else who has actually done this will add to the thread...

[NIquist]

Solved: decompiling 2009 executable - NI Community

[rolfk]

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@NIquist wrote:

Solved: decompiling 2009 executable - NI Community

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It's not that simple. 1998 is at most LabVIEW 5.0, and possibly LabVIEW 4.1 (5.0 was released in February 1998 and may have been used for this program, or it may not).

You may be able to get it to run on Windows XP as it is possibly a Windows 95 version but it could just as well be compiled for Windows 3.1 and that can not run on any NT kernel.

Yes those executables were in fact an LLB tacked onto an executable stub. But that LLB still had only the front panels that were ever shown, and no diagram at all for any of the VIs in it.

[K C · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Can you post the exec here? Still have some old versions running in a virtual machine. 

Kees

[NIquist]

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@rolfk wrote:

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@NIquist wrote:

Solved: decompiling 2009 executable - NI Community

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It's not that simple.

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Ah, I figured that would be too easy.  I didn't realize which version we were talking about either.  My very first LabVIEW was version 5 and I'm OLD.  Brings back memories of convoluted stacked sequence structures riddled with sequence locals.  Like worms in a rotting apple...  Good times. 😋

[Jumpod]

You may try to run that exe from command prompt and post the error message.
another question is, What is your os that run the exe? 32-bit or 64-bit?

[StevenD]

I have tried from a command prompt. It doesn't return any information. A LabVIEW icon shows up on the taskbar for a few seconds, then disappears. No warnings, errors, ect. I'm running Windows 10, tried all the compatibility options, XP, 98, 95. Always same behavior.

[billko]

Even if it is somehow actually trying to run, it may be making calls to the OS or hardware that are no longer allowed.

[Kyle97330]

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@StevenD wrote:

I have tried from a command prompt. It doesn't return any information. A LabVIEW icon shows up on the taskbar for a few seconds, then disappears. No warnings, errors, ect. I'm running Windows 10, tried all the compatibility options, XP, 98, 95. Always same behavior.

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When you say "no warnings/errors", have you checked the Windows event log?  A lot of times when something dies silently, a log entry will be made there in the "Windows logs\Application" or "Windows logs\System" log category.