Rif.: Ensuring the Continued Support and Stability of LabWindows/CVI

[Xavier9905]

Hello LabWindows/CVI Community,

We understand that many of you have questions about the future of LabWindows/CVI, and we want to reassure you of our commitment to the product. Therefore, we plan to release LabWindows/CVI 2026 in the coming year.

Long-Term Strategy and Updates: While LabWindows/CVI 2020 was initially stated to be feature-complete, we are actively evaluating long-term support options based on your feedback. Our primary goal is to ensure that existing systems and code remain secure and supported.

Mainstream Support Continues: LabWindows/CVI remains in Mainstream Support, and we have no plans to end-of-life the product. Our focus is on maintaining a stable and reliable platform for all users. Therefore, our resources will be concentrated on addressing any critical issues that may affect the core functionality of CVI as well as security updates to bring the product up to CRA compliance.

Windows Compatibility: The release of the 2020 f3 Patch ensures compatibility with Windows 11. Additionally, we are committed to evaluating future Microsoft OS versions, such as Windows 12, to maintain a seamless upgrade path across our platform software.

Bug Fixes and Enhancements: We are dedicated to addressing critical issues and bugs as they arise, providing patches that enhance performance and compatibility with advancing technology.

For more detailed information, please visit our official guidance page: NI Software Product Life Cycle Policies.

For any further questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to myself via direct message.

We appreciate your ongoing trust and engagement with LabWindows/CVI. More updates will be shared later in 2025. Thank you for being an integral part of our community.

Best regards, 

The LabWindows/CVI Team

[Pims]

Hello The LabWindows/CVI Team,

This is excellent news. For us, an early Christmas.
We've been waiting for this kind of news for too long.
Even though this announcement is specifically focused on technical support, it was unexpected.

For our part, over the years, we have open several tickets to your technical support,

which were closed too quickly by your services, due to a lack of solutions to offer us.

For example, currently, UTF-8 management is not fully developed.

And we (my company) were forced to work with the "MenuUtil" 2019 libraries, under LabWidows/CVI 2020.

Have you planned a solution to allow for the re-updating of problems that are still present, but have been resolved by your services?
Like a link to provide you with ticket numbers in question ?

Thanks a lot.

Best regards.

[DieselPower]

I'm glad to hear this.

• Please fix the bug where the drop down combo box for function names that allows one to quickly jump to a function becomes blank from time to time.  When this happens, I have to close and reopen the .c file to get it to reload.
• Please fix the bug where the Debug Window closes by itself.
• Please allow the debug Window to be opened while already running in debug mode (is in not only before pressing play, but after if you forget or find the window closed).
• I am stuck with 18.6 drivers on Pharlap because there is no support for LabWindows/CVI Real Time for Linux.  I use a PXI with distributed cDAQ 9178 chassis for DAQ.  For whatever reason, I get AI Task timeout issues periodically that I never got when using a Windows PC.  Same USB repeater cable.  Same cDAQ chassis.  Same continuous AI tasks just written in a different language.  With Windows I get no AI task timeout.  With my RT program running on a PXI-8840 I get them.  When this happens, I have to reset the cDAQ chassis several times to bring all modules back which requires a total shutdown of the system.  I don't know if this is an 8840 hardware issue, or an 18.6 driver issue, but it is really a thorn in my side.
• In the past, I was told that I was one of the few people left that programs real time applications in CVI, therefore NI would not support CVI Real Time beyond 2019.  I wonder if this would still be the case if NI marketed CVI as hard as it markets Labview.  Labview is great, but there are many programmers that still want to write code with text, not pictures.
• While the features may be complete in CVI, the hardware is always changing.  Having NI transition to Linux and cease support for cDAQ with it, along with releasing a new RTOS that isn't supported in CVI RT means I can no longer update hardware, drivers or software versions.  CVI should work with the hardware and software NI is currently selling.  You want to know how much equipment I've bought off of EBay because CVI RT ceased support for current hardware and RTOS?

[carlox]

I'm happy to hear this kind of news.
Whoa! The news is so unexpected and incredible that you could be a troll making fun of us. 🤣

In fact, your account has been registered for over a year, but you've only posted three messages, all yesterday. You have a generic avatar and a nickname with numbers, typical of someone who doesn't even bother looking for a personal one.
You sign yourself here as "The LabWindows/CVI Team" and in another thread as "Test Software Product Manager.".
I've interacted with other NI staff in the past, and their presentation was much more professional: they had a first and last name, a job title, a company signature, a logo, and many other details.
Many users have a more authoritative signature than yours.
Now, either you're truly a troll, or this company message sent by what appears to be a regular user demonstrates once again how little effort your company is putting into communication in this area.
Remember, you're speaking to a community that's been filled with gossip for years, left without any certainty, and essentially abandoned. 😡
We are watching you. 😎


P.S. I hope this doesn't sound too harsh; English isn't my native language, and I don't know well what that sounds like. I'm angry with the company, not you, to be clear. 

[DieselPower]

Ewww, I hadn't thought of that.

[Xavier9905]

Hello CVI Community,

I would like to reassure the community of the authenticity surrounding the message of continued mainstream support for CVI. I am the new acting product manager for LabWindows/CVI, Vision, and various LabVIEW toolkits and modules. I apologize for the lack of clarity around the origin of the initial post. As we come closer to the release of CVI I look forward to providing more detailed information and updates to this community.

Sincerely,

[adcor]

Hello,

As an avid CVI user for 25+ years I must say this is most excellent and most welcome news!!!  I look forward to the releast of CVI 2026!

-alex

[vix]

At first sight this could seem great news, but ...

As far as I understand the message only says that:

• support for CVI will be extended (for years the support has beem zero)
• some critical bugs will be fixed (which bugs? who decide which bugs are in this list?)
• compatibility with existing and future Windows OS will be guaranteed - this is good news

Basicially this is the goal for new CVI 2026 and beyond

ensure that existing systems and code remain secure and supported

In the hardware chip world this would be:

not recommended for new (or active) products 

This announcement doesn't really impact the future life for CVI.

It only adds some more yar to give us time to migrate to adifferent solution (better that high pressure).

[Gaus]

Hi Xavier,

Thanks for the information regarding CVI for the coming years.

Updates of CVI and support for the next Windows OS is very much appreciated. 

Best Regards,

Jan

[Wolfgang]

Hey Xavier,

this might sound promising...

Concerning bug fixes and enhancements: 

There is a long list of known bugs, part of these even have been made public, e.g. here and here 

There is also a list of suggestions in the (sort of abandoned) Idea Exchange found here. You may consider all the ideas listed as 'hot'.

Implementing a bunch of those would be really nice, thanks!