You must install the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine on any computer on which you want to run any type of LabVIEW-built application. The LabVIEW Run-Time Engine includes the libraries and other files necessary to run basic application types built in LabVIEW.

Note The LabVIEW Run-Time Engine is multilingual.

When you create build specification for an installer, the Application Builder includes the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine by default.

All types of applications built with one particular version of LabVIEW can share the same LabVIEW Run-Time Engine, so you need to install the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine for that version only once. However, if you want to run multiple LabVIEW-built applications created with different versions of LabVIEW on the same computer, you must install each version of the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine that corresponds with each version of LabVIEW used to create the application types. For example, if you want to run an application created in LabVIEW 7.0 and an application created in LabVIEW 8.0 on the same computer, the computer must have versions 7.0 and 8.0 of the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine.

Considerations for the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine

  • (Windows) If you want to include the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine in an installer built with the Application Builder, remember that you must log on as an Administrator or a user with administrator privileges to run that installer. (Linux) When you install the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine on a target computer where you want to run an application that uses the Mathematics or Signal Processing VIs, enter yes when prompted to install the LabVIEW Run-Time Advanced Analysis Support package labview-rte-aal-1.1-1.i386.rpm.
  • Some VI Server properties and methods are not supported in the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine. Avoid using these properties and methods in the VIs you include in an application or shared library.
  • Incorporate error handling into the VIs of the application because LabVIEW does not display automatic error handling dialog boxes in the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine.
  • If the VI uses custom run-time menus, make sure the application menu items that the VI uses are available in the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine.
  • When you close all front panel windows in an application, the application stops. If the VI you build into the application contains code that executes after the last front panel window closes, this code does not execute in the application. Avoid writing block diagram code that executes after the last front panel window closes.
  • If you reference a VI in an application using the Call By Reference node, if a VI uses Property Nodes to set front panel properties, or if a front panel window appears to users, remove the checkmark in the Remove front panel checkbox for that VI from the Use default save settings section on the Source File Settings page of the Application Properties dialog box. If you remove the front panel window, the Call By Reference node or Property Nodes that refer to the front panel window will return errors that might affect the behavior of the application.