Standard fix for: evaluation dialog box - how to get rid of it.

[mselinger]

Hi,

Is there a way how to get rid of following dialog box when it appears?

Please note user is not allowed to click on any button. I need to do this purely by program. Ideally some registry entry.

Thank you, Michal.

[SteveD123]

There is a standard fix for this problem, but it takes at least 5 steps to take the software out of evaluation mode:

1. Contact NI, either through their website, or through your friendly local representative.

2. Tell them that you want to buy LabWindows, the Real Time Module and the Profiler.

3. They will tell you how much this costs.

4. Transfer this amount of money to NI.

5. In return, they will send you a serial number that will take your software out of evaluation mode.

[mselinger]

Well this wasn't helpful at all.

It is probably my fault that I didn't specify that I have a license. I am using license through CEAL server. The problem why I want to get rid of this message when it appears is that sometimes the CEAL is down and this window pops up. So I was thinking whether there isn't some hidden switch in registry that will tell the NI SW that always use Evaluation and don't ask user.

Anyways solution for this might be though Windows function:

- FindWindowEx

- SwitchToThisWindow

- SendMessage

I haven't done this as projects built in Evaluation mode has a limited execution time implemented according to NI help so I am not using any automatic hadnling on this window anyway.

But thanks for reply. At least one.

Michal

[RobertoBozzolo]

If this is on your machine, did you noticed that "Do not show this dialogue again" on the bottom of the window? It's enough to check it the first time you see this dialog and you won't see it any more (even though I would like to know I am running in eval mode instead of full-featured mode, but it's my preference).

But I have one doubt as I don't have an installation like yours: if your licence server goes down after the evaluation period has expired, will your CVI install work at least in eval mode or it will see evaluation time has expired and block the product?

[mselinger]

Hi Roberto,

Yes! I noticed "Do not show this dialogue again" checkbox but I cannot use it due to several reasons. Let me explain.

I am using LabWindows/CVI ActiveX Controller to control the project creation/building process. This is running on different machines where I cannot really rely on whether this checkox was hit by anyone before or not. So this was a critical requirement to handle any such event without user intervention. Here starts the story where I was looking into automatic solution for how to handle this.

About your second question, the last one should be correct. The CEAL would have to be down for whole my evaulation period in order that CVI would stop working. But when CEAL is available again this 30-day evaluation period should be restarted and with another CEAL outage this window shown again. This is where I am like 90% certain. So please don't take this as an absolute truth if not confirmed by any NI staff.

Anyways as I said before I am not into this solution anymore but if anyone would have any idea how to simply handle this without any user intervention I would store this into my knowledge database :). I already mentioned Windows function above which should work. Also there is a freeware SW called AutoIt which basically does the same.

Thank you, Michal.

[ValkoA]

Dear Michal!

What is the reason for not allowing any user interaction? Is this on an industrial PC?

I've snooped around but there's no programmatical way of turning down evaluation messages (we want our customers to buy software, right?  ). 

My first idea to programmatically solve this would be to run a VB script after you start CVI. The script would:

1. Wait a little to make sure the popup is there.

2  Press the Enter key. 

If the popup isn't there, then it's going to press enter in the middle of CVI loading, so it's not going to do anything.

What is your opinion on this workaround?

Regards:

Andrew Valko

NI Hungary

[mselinger]

Hi Andrew,

thanks for your effort. Your solution seems viable but is the same as I mentioned earlier.

And what is the reason for not allowing user interaction? Well I have automated script with hundreds of projects I need to build and I am really disappointed when in the middle of the script execution this window shows up and the execution hangs because of some lag on the network (which lead to CEAL server inaccessibility). And yes, this is on standalone PC where there is no operator present and very often execution runs overnight.

Thank you, Michal.

[ValkoA]

Dear Michal,

Now I understand your concern. It truly must be infuriating to have all your overnight tasks halted on some popup window.

If you often have such network issues, the best solution I believe is to get a Disconnected or Home license for the machine in question. I would only start working on scripting these dialogs away if that's not feasible.

Best regards:

Andrew Valko

NI Hungary 

[mselinger]

Andrew,

this was the first idea the NI guy on support line gave me. Unfortunately this wouldn't work for me also. The projects are build by different users with different logins. For each user there is license provided by CEAL. This would mean to disconnect all the licenses on these multiple computers (which I don't think is possible - to have multiple licenses disconnected on single machine) or to have one general login and disconnect license for it on these multiple build machines. This is forbidden by our IT policy (there always has to be some glitch :)).

Anyways, as I mentioned before I am not into this solution anymore so no need to waste yours or anyone's time on this thread.

Thanks a lot for your effort. I really appreciate it, Michal.