How do I get back to the newest file dialog box style in LabVIEW?

[RudyRed]

I have LabVIEW 7.1 and LabVIEW 6.0.2 installed on the same machine.  When I doubleclick a .vi file it tries to open in LV602.  Of course, if it is a LV71 VI I get an error and it doesn't open.  Then I run LV71 and load the desired VI--in this case by using the Open arrow to find it in the "recently opened" list.  Now, I've made this mistake before, especially when I don't remember whether I used LV602 or LV71 to create the VI, and nothing bad has happened.

But this time something undesirable did happen:  all Open File dialog boxes are of the old funky style.  How do I get the file dialog boxes back that I've grown used to seeing when I use LV71?

CLUES:

1.  I get the old style dialog box even when I try to open a VI--not just when a running VI invokes it.

2.  The built version of the VI brings up the correct, new style, file dialog box--unlike the development environment.

I haven't found any settings in the options area that would appear to affect the file dialog box style.  Has anyone ever seen anything like this?

[Dennis_Knutson]

Options>Miscellaneous>Use Native File Dialogs.

[Benoit]

I suggest you to remove the previous version of LabView and a lot's of your problem will be resolved.

I got the same problem when I switch to 8.0.

If you use Windows XP, You can easily change the default aplication for the .vi extention and other by using the little application for that. But removing the old version will help more.

Benoit

[WNM]

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@Benoit wrote:

I suggest you to remove the previous version of LabView and a lot's of your problem will be resolved.

Just know that if you do this, you won't be able to reinstall the old version as long as the newer version is installed. You will be burning a bridge...

If you never need to maintain or deal with old code then this is a reasonable thing to do.

I just know that most of us who have been doing LabVIEW for any length of time keep the old versions around because the are periodically useful and, for the most part, coexist peacefully with the new stuff.

[Dennis_Knutson]

I agree. I don't any reason to uninstall any old versions of LabVIEW until the converted VIs have been running for a long time. I don't think the problem has anything to do with different versions or file extensions anyway.

[RudyRed]

Thanks, Dennis.  That was the problem.  The default must have been to use native dialogs, because I never touched that setting, as far as I can recall--and I always have to adjust options on a new installation (remember when the default was to NOT show dots at wire junctions?  I could never understand how anybody could work that way!).  So I am left to only wonder how that setting got changed, with the only sensible solution being that, when LV602 was invoked as the default application for that file extension (i.e. ".vi"), it left behind some kind of reference to whatever is responsible for the different dialog styles which was then adopted by LV71--permanently.

Thanks, again, for the pointer, Dennis.

[RudyRed]

Thanks for the response, Benoit, but I must maintain the capability to support legacy code, since not all of our computer systems (where I work) have the required Windows OS level and hardware resources to run LV71 executables.  Until the last of our old computers is sufficiently updated, I will have to work with LV602.  What has been a real headache for me is having to work with two versions of NIDAQ on the same machine!  Since only one version can be officially installed in Windows at any particular time, I've had to "fake" it, with a few manual file/directory copy-and-pastes.

The reason I default LV602 as the application to invoke on a doubleclicked VI file is to avoid losing the LV602 VIs by accidentally opening a LV602 VI with LV71 and then saving it with the same filename.  Though my habit is to go through the front door, so to speak, running the development system first and choosing the VI from there (rather than doubleclicking a VI file in Windows [File] Explorer), once in a while I get a little excited...This way, the older VIs open normally, and the LV71-level VIs refuse to open.  But now my little safety net is developing holes, so I'll try to be more careful.

[RudyRed]

Thanks for the response, Warren.  I think all my problems with LV versions coexisting peacefully have been related to NIDAQ--and I think the workaround (for supporting the different levels of LV DAQ VIs--see my response to Benoit, above) shows that it is not NECESSARY for NI to orphan old LV versions' DAQ functionality on the development computer, though it is still painful to be able to have only one version of NIDAQ available on a given target computer.  It's probably a marketting decision meant to encourage users to stay on the straight-and-narrow upgrade path.

[rolfk]

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@RudyRed wrote:

Thanks for the response, Warren.  I think all my problems with LV versions coexisting peacefully have been related to NIDAQ--and I think the workaround (for supporting the different levels of LV DAQ VIs--see my response to Benoit, above) shows that it is not NECESSARY for NI to orphan old LV versions' DAQ functionality on the development computer, though it is still painful to be able to have only one version of NIDAQ available on a given target computer.  It's probably a marketting decision meant to encourage users to stay on the straight-and-narrow upgrade path.

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NI-DAQ has usually been working fine in several different installed LabVIEW versions on my computer. What is important is the order of installation. Start first with the lowest LabVIEW version and install the latest NI-DAQ that supports that LabVIEW version. Then go to the next LabVIEW version and install again the latest NI-DAQ version that supported this LabVIEW version and so on. I'm regularly working with 6.1 up to 7.1 and starting with 8.0 slowly and haven't had real show stoppers yet.

Rolf Kalbermatter

[RudyRed]

Thanks for the response, Rolf.  I wonder if you are using a Windows PC because you did not mention the necessity of uninstalling the old before installing the new NIDAQ.  At some point in my installation of LV71, it told me I had to uninstall the existing NIDAQ (the version that came with my existing LV602) before I could continue.  This point was probably when I tried to install NIDAQ from the distribution disks in the latter part of the LV71 installation, but I'm not sure.  But earlier on in the installation process, the installer told me it could not continue until I renamed a help file (.chm, I think) located in the system32 directory (did that happen to you?).

Anyway, after the LV71 installation was finished, I fired up my LV602 and found my DAQ pallet was empty!  No subpallets, no VIs, so it couldn't find the DAQ VIs in programs that I'd try to load.  After some manual file and directory copy-and-paste activity I could once again develop my LV602 DAQ code, but the process was a little painful.  Maybe you didn't see the same issues because your previous LV installation was LV61, since there was a major change of some kind from LV602 to LV61.  I don't know what better explanation there might be since our setups seem very similar (i.e. Windows 2000/XP, Intel/AMD).  Unless...I didn't have the latest NIDAQ that supported LV602...maybe too big of a jump in NIDAQ levels?