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Use the LabVIEW Platform media to install LabVIEW and many LabVIEW modules and toolkits and evaluate the products for free for a set period of time. This topic explains what you can expect when you evaluate LabVIEW, modules, or toolkits and how you can activate those products after you evaluate them.

Evaluating LabVIEW, Modules, or Toolkits

You can access all the tools, VIs and functions, help, and examples available to the LabVIEW Professional Development System and most modules or toolkits in a free evaluation mode. When the evaluation period expires, you must activate the software to continue using LabVIEW.

Evaluating LabVIEW

When you run LabVIEW in evaluation mode, LabVIEW includes the following limitations:

• A time limit until the evaluation version expires—While not activated, LabVIEW prompts you to activate the product each time you launch LabVIEW. You can continue to run LabVIEW in evaluation mode.
• An evaluation version watermark during the time limit—All user VIs and controls have an evaluation watermark and any VIs you create while in non-activated mode, except for subVIs in a subpanel of a VI, include a watermark on all displayed front panel windows.

After the evaluation period for LabVIEW expires, you are no longer able to launch LabVIEW.

Evaluating Modules and Toolkits

After the evaluation period for a module or toolkit expires, you are no longer able to perform the following actions:

• Run VIs from the module or toolkit.
• Run VIs that use VIs from the module or toolkit.
• Build VIs that use VIs from the module or toolkit into an executable or shared library.
• Access menus, tools, or palettes installed by the module or toolkit.

When you install a module or toolkit for evaluation, you install the help for the module or toolkit. The help for the module or toolkit remains installed after the evaluation period. Also, the NI Example Finder displays all module or toolkit examples after the evaluation period. You must uninstall the module or toolkit to remove the help and examples.

If you run LabVIEW in evaluation mode, you receive functionality of the Professional Development System. If you then purchase and activate a LabVIEW license, you receive full functionality of the development system you purchase. For example, if you create a VI using features that are only available in the Professional Development System and then you purchase and activate the Full Development System, the VI you created using the Professional Development System will be broken.

Activating LabVIEW, Modules, or Toolkits after Evaluation

To activate the LabVIEW license, use the serial number you received on the Certificate of Ownership included in the software kit. You can activate the LabVIEW license in any of the following ways:

• During installation, enter the serial number when prompted and complete the installation and activation process.
• After you launch LabVIEW in evaluation mode, click the Activate Products button in the LabVIEW dialog box.
• Select Help»Activate LabVIEW Components while LabVIEW is running in evaluation mode or select Start»All Programs»National Instruments»NI License Manager to launch NI License Manager. The license activation does not take effect until you restart LabVIEW.

If you purchase add-on software, such as modules or toolkits, use NI License Manager to activate the software. If you do not see the software listed in NI License Manager, you can install it from the LabVIEW Platform media.

LabVIEW installs the Application Builder when you install LabVIEW. If you activate the LabVIEW Professional Development System, you automatically activate the Application Builder. If you activate the LabVIEW Base Development System or Full Development System, you must purchase and activate the Application Builder separately.

Upgrading from an Evaluation Version to a Paid Version

If you are upgrading from an evaluation version to a paid version, you do not need to reinstall your software. Follow the prompts that appear when you launch your application or use NI License Manager to activate the software.

Moving between Paid Versions

If at a later time you decide to move to a different product package, such as upgrading from LabVIEW Base Development System to LabVIEW Professional Development System, you can activate the new package without installing additional software. Use NI License Manager to activate your software.

Refer to Activating Your Software for more information about software activation.

I have been getting a lot of support questions regarding activating LabVIEW lately. To be more specific, users are saying that their serial number is invalid when they try to activate the software. In this post, I am going to detail how to activate your LabVIEW software properly.

Using the LabVIEW Installer

If you purchased LabVIEW through Studica, you most likely only have LabVIEW, Multisim, or Ultiboard. It’s possible that you have all three. This is important to note because the LabVIEW installer (depending on which one you are given) will often list lots of different software that you may not actually have a serial number for. This is usually the source of the “Invalid Serial Number” error. For example, if you put in your LabView serial number where it asks you for the NI SignalExpress serial number, then you will receive an error. This is because your serial number is only good for LabVIEW, not SignalExpress.

Once the software is actually installed on your computer, you will need to activate it. Follow these steps to ensure a smooth activation.

Go to Start → All Programs → National Instruments → NI License Manager.

This will open up the License Manager for your NI products. This is where you can see all your licensing information. This is also where you activate your licenses.

Under the hierarchy that says “Local Licenses”, find the product that you need to activate and left click on it. You will see an “Activate” button near the top left of the window. Click on this button.

A wizard will pop up with a few options to choose from. I recommend using the “Automatically Activate Through a Secure Internet Connection” option. Then hit Next. The next window will show you a list of possible products that you can activate. Again, your serial number is only good for certain products. If you do not know which products, I recommend looking at your purchase order and confirming what it is that you purchased. Fill out the serial number information for the applicable programs and hit Next. On the next window, you will be asked to login to your NI profile. Go ahead and do so. If you do not have an account yet, click on the “Create a New User Profile” option and make a new account. Once this is done, click Next and the activation process will begin.

Once it’s done, it will let you know if it succeeded or failed. If you have any failures, it is most likely because your serial number does not cover the failed products. I hope this is helpful. Feel free to leave comments. Thank you!