If you want to run a LabVIEW DAQ application on a target than doesn't have LabVIEW installed, you only need two pieces of software in order to run the Exe. The Runtime engine and the driver software, which in your case is NI-DAQmx.
You mention that it doesn't get passed the stage of searching for software, I wonder if this points towards a bad install of NI-DAQmx. Did the install seem to go OK and what settings did you make during the install (install path, various components etc)? It may be worth removing the hardware and reinstalling NI-DAQmx and trying again.
I understand your point about having one piece of software, but there are lots of reasons why NI doesn't bundle the runtime engine into the drivers. One reason is that you would have to bundle a runtime version of LabVIEW and CVI for every version supported by the driver. This would cause the 'unified' piece of software to get larger and larger, something the community wouldn't be keen on. Also remember that people use the NI-DAQmx driver who don't use an NI programming environment such as VB etc. These users certainly wouldn't want to install runtime engines which are of no use to them.
The fact that inside LabVIEW we can now create an installer that also runs any selected driver installs is good enough for me.