NI Package Manager (NIPM)

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New 20.7 release of NI Package Manager

Hello All, 

  

I'm glad to announce the new release of NIPM 20.7! 

  

Summarizing: 

  • The Browse Product tab is back. 
  • Fully silent installation 
  • NI drops Windows 7/8.1/Server 2008 R2/Server 2012 R2 Support and all Windows 32-bit OSes 

  

Browse Product tab 

 

We heard you! The Browse product tab is back in NIPM 20.7. 

 

Fully silent installation 

 

Automate the unattended or silent installation of an online installer, offline installer, or Package Manager using the command-line interface (CLI). 

 

To make the installation process fully silent, include the --quiet flag at the command prompt. This option prevents Package Manager from displaying visible dialogs or taskbar icons during installation. 

 

NI drops Windows 7/8.1/Server 2008 R2/Server 2012 R2 Support and all Windows 32-bit OSes 

  

As you may be aware, NI is dropping support for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 R2, and all Windows 32-bit OSes. I want to clarify a few things about how this will relate to NIPM and the creation and distribution of package-based deployments (packages and package-based installers).

 

Starting with NIPM 20.7 (releasing April 2021), NIPM will not be installable on these unsupported OSes. Therefore, all new software that is dependent on NIPM 20.7 or later, which will be most (if not all) of the NI software that will release starting in April 2021, will also not be installable on these unsupported OSes.

 

Cross-bitness package-based deployment: Because deployment builders, such as LabVIEW Application Builder, TestStand Deployment Utility, and NI Package Builder, use components from the version of NIPM installed on the machine when building packages or package-based installers, any package-based deployment built on a machine with NIPM 20.7 or later will not be able to install on Windows 32-bit OSes. So if you are on Windows 10 64-bit and need to continue building package-based deployments for Windows 32-bit OSes, do NOT upgrade to NIPM 20.7 or later. 

  

To help illustrate this further, here are a few examples: 

  

Example 1: 

OS: Windows 7 32-bit 

Deployment builder: LabVIEW 2020 

NIPM version: 20.6 

  

Packages and package-based installers built on this machine will still be able to install on the now unsupported OSes, including 32-bit OSes. Note that you will not be able to upgrade to NIPM 20.7 on this machine because Windows 7 32-bit will no longer be supported. 

  

Example 2: 

OS: Windows 10 64-bit 

Deployment builder: LabVIEW 2020 

NIPM version: 20.6 

  

Packages and package-based installers built on this machine will still be able to install the now unsupported OSes, including 32-bit OSes.  

  

Example 3: 

OS: Windows 10 64-bit 

Deployment builder: LabVIEW 2020 

NIPM version 20.7 

  

Packages and package-based installers built on this machine will NOT be able to install on unsupported OSes, including 32-bit OSes. 

  

NOTE: Notice that a machine that used to be able to build packages and package-based installers for the unsupported OSes will no longer be able to do so after upgrading NIPM to version 20.7 or later. Keep in mind that upgrading drivers or other peripheral software may require upgrading to NIPM 20.7, so this may affect you even if you don't upgrade the deployment builder (e.g. LabVIEW, TestStand, NI  Package Builder, etc.) itself.

 

Cross-OS package-based deployment: Similar to number 2, any package-based deployment built on a machine with NIPM 20.7 installed will not be installable on Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012 R2. So if you are on Windows 10 and need to continue building package-based deployments for one of these other Windows OSes, do NOT upgrade to NIPM 20.7 or later.

 

For more details see the following KB: NI Installer Fails on Windows 7/8 and Windows Server 2008/2012

 

Thanks, and please let us know if you have any further questions.

 

Carlos Gonzalez 

NI Package Manager  

Product Owner 

Message 1 of 5
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so if I understand correctly Windows 7/8.1 64-bit is also NO longer supported with VIPM 20.7?

 

Not necessarily required but something to keep in mind.

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Message 2 of 5
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@Carlos_Gonzalez wrote:

So if you are on Windows 10 and need to continue building package-based deployments for one of these other Windows OSes, do NOT upgrade to NIPM 20.7 or later.


Where can we download older versions of NIPM?

 

https://www.ni.com/en-au/support/downloads/software-products/download.package-manager.html only lets us download the latest version. The page has a section called "Included Versions" which reports "17.0.0, 17.5.0, ... 20.7.0" but the installer forcibly installs 20.7.0.

 

EDIT: Found it after posting. There's a link called "Individual Offline Installers" below the main "Download" button.

Certified LabVIEW Developer
Message 3 of 5
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Yes, that is correct the 64-bit versions of Windows 7/8 are also no longer supported with VIPM 20.7.

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Message 4 of 5
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Yes, glad you found the option. You can click on the link to download "Individual Offline Installers", which is below the download button, on the page and that will display the following dialog:

lituslitus_0-1618428069778.png

 

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