NIPM shows a different version number compared to the application 'About' dialog

[VNF]

Why does NIPM show a different version number from what the application itself displays in the About dialog?  For example, in the attached picture Labview About shows the version is 14.0.1f3 while NIPM shows 14.1.96.  TestStand About shows version 14.0.1.103 while NIPM shows 14.10.49152.  Our software development process requires us to record the version of the tools we use and I don't know which one to believe.

[VNF]

Adding the screenshot

[WesW · Accepted solution]

Both are correct, but I can see why that's not expected! In summary, NIPM is showing you the version of the installer package, and the about boxes in TS and LV are showing you the version of its core binary. These are not the exact same values because:

• There are different format restrictions and conventions for the different version fields (3 fields vs 4, etc)
• The packages and binaries build at different cadences, so for a major.minor.build version string, the build will be different. And, because most NI products contain dozens to hundreds of packages, and potentially from different releases and from different teams, the versions will vary between these packages.
• The "conversion" between binary and package varies for historical reasons per product. However, the major.minor between binary and package should be logically equivalent and guaranteed unique for a given release,  For example for LV, binary version of 14.0.1f3 = 14.1.x of the package, and for TS, 14.0.1.103 of the binary = 14.10.x of the package. 

So, for purposes of documenting versions, just be consistent on which you record. 

[bienieck]

How can I determine if I have installed a TS 2017 or TS 2017 Patch? In TS About I see NI TestStand 2017 (17.0.0.184) 32-bit for both. But NIPM shows 17.0.0.49154-0+f2 for TestStand 2017 and 117.0.1.49153-0+f1 for TestStand 2017 Patch.

Can I determine if I have a patch installed without NIPM?

[Scott_Richardson]

General Version Background

The "17.0.x" is the portion of the a version that we care about. Every component has a version, Engine (TSEngine.dll), and the Sequence Editor (SeqEdit.exe). If the patch updates SeqEdit.exe and not TSEngine.dll, the versions of each binary would be "17.0.1" and "17.0.0" respectively.

The About box shows both the Engine and Sequence Editor versions, so if those binaries where not updated in the patch, they will still show "17.0.0".

In addition, there is a display version that is stored in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\National Instruments\TestStand\17.0\VersionString. I do not remember which MSI set this registry key.

The 2017 installer was repackaged using NIPM packages, so NIPM displays the package version information it grabs from the installed packages. I believe that when a TestStand patch installer is created, it might only update the packages that have affected binaries and any parent dependent packages, including the top-most product package that is effectively empty, so that is why you see "17.0.1" in NIPM.

TestStand 2017 Patch

I do not remember what it patched and exactly how the patch was created, however, looking at TestStand 2017 f1 Patch Details it suggests that the change was for displaying licensing properly. If that is the case, the ni-teststand-2017-licenses, might have been the only required change, so the other package updated would have been the top-most.

Looking at the feed in NIPM, I see the following package versions, and there are 3 package with 17.0.1 version, the two I mentioned above and it looks like there was an undocumented change related to NXG support.

So NIPM 2017 did not update any binary files or their packages. If the registry key was updated, that might be good enough. Another option is to look in C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\NI Package Manager\packages to see if there is a ni-teststand-2017_17.0.1.* package.

[bienieck]

I was asking about checking without NIPM - I have an older OS (Win 7) and NIPM is not supported (at least officially). I also don't see "VersionString" in regedit.

I could determine if the patch is installed by running the patch setup.exe - in the installer summary (just before proceeding to the actual installation) I see if the patch was installed. If it is already installed, the summary says that there is nothing to install.

[Scott_Richardson]

The change appears to be a MSI change only, i.e. no new files were installed, so if there is some way to ask the MSI database, that might be an option, but that is out of my domain.