LabVIEW
Combining run time engine into the executable (not installer)
Would it be possible at all to combine the run time engine into the same executable? I am NOT referring to bundling the executable and the RTE into an installer.
Assuming I am able to find all the dlls and other files that make up the RTE and add them as 'always included' in source files when building the executable, could this possibly work?
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It might be possible to do kind off but it is riddled with troubles. The first would be to find all the right DLLs and what else and put them in the right location next to your executable. A potentially huge undertaking and definitively not easily reapplied to a different version of LabVIEW. There are also potential other problems such as the installer containing multiple versions of some files and installing whatever it detected to be appropriate for the computer in question. Then there are third party dependencies like the Microsoft C Runtime library that want to have put some of its files into specific locations and be registered for it to work properly.
Last but not least, if your application wants to access-hardware drivers you don’t get around installing them. In order to access hardware you need a kernel driver and you can’t just copy them on your computer and hope Windows will recognize them. It won’t and will simply blissfully ignore them.
I am not interested in accessing hardware drivers, so that's one less thing to worry about. I am thinking NI should be able to provide the list of dlls etc for a specific version of LabVIEW so all dlls and files are compatible? Can an NI staff weigh in here please. I hear that once upon a time labVIEW executables included (or could include) the run-time engine, so I am hoping that with some NI support, this should work. The alternative is to try LabVIEW to C generator, not sure how that will go and I first have to get the add-on
Why do you want to do this? There's likely a better way to achieve whatever it is you're trying to do.
I would be glad to find a better way, the end user PCs will not allow any installation. I just want to run an exe file and that’s it. Please if you have better ideas let me know.
