Hi ToNi,
reference to create a status bar at the botton of your vi, I´d like to indicate you that you would be able to use Subpanels ( Controls|All Controls|Containers).
Through the Subpanels you can execute differents VIs under execution mode (not at the same time under the same Subpanel, but you can load several subpanels and execute one vi for each subpanel or several vis for each one). You can see some examples in Labview (NI Example Finder and type, under the Search Tab, Subpanel and choose several examples that you´ll find).
Actually, Labview 7.1 cannot support MDI but I´ve heard something about this, and it´s possible under the following version that LabVIEW can support it under enviroment mode.
I hope this helps you
Regards
Diego M