Find Installed Active-X Components

[mcduff]

Is there any way to dynamically check if an Active-X component is installed? That is, before setting an Active-X object I want to make sure the user installed the necessary program on the computer.

Thanks

mcduff

[A_Hint_From_Trent]

Do you mean you just want to verify within your VI that the user has ActiveX controls installed on their machine?

[mcduff]

I would like to verify that a particular Active-X component is installed. It is not a standard Windows feature, it is from Thorlabs. If the component is not there LabVIEW hangs looking for it.

Thanks

mcduff

[A_Hint_From_Trent]

Are you trying to do this programmatically within the VI before you run your program or is a manual inspection alright? 

[mcduff]

I am trying to do this programmatically within the VI before my program tries to call any missing Active-X Components.

Thanks

mcduff

[A_Hint_From_Trent]

So what you could do is look to see if the file path that contains the Thorlabs ActiveX control is on the machine. Typically, the ActiveX framework should download and create a file in the same location on your Computer (C Drive) so if you know that file path we can programmatically search within LabVIEW to see if it is a valid file path within LabVIEW. 

To verify the file path, you can step through these steps to find the specific ActiveX control you will need and if you select that control and double click the control it will provide more information on the control including the file path.

http://www.wikihow.com/Check-ActiveX-Version-(Windows-7)

Once you have that file path you can use the "Check if File or Folder Exists VI" which will output a Boolean value which you could interface with a case structure to run the program if found or stop the VI if it is not. Here is a link for this specific VI.

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361H-01/glang/check_if_file_exists/