Installed Program Error

Question

I am having installation problems but not consistently. I have installed my LabVIEW-generated software using the exact same installer software on 5 separate non-LabVIEW PC's: four XP machines and one 2000 machine. The software installed without error and ran properly on 2 XP's and the one 2000. On the other two XP machines, it installed without error but when executed it gave me the error message: "The VI is not executable. The full development version of LabVIEW is required to fix the error."
Why would it install satisfactorily on some machines and not others with exactly the same operating system?
Side note: The computers with the two failed installations had their anti-virus/firewalls disabled or removed completely.

Answer 1

Hi SBS,
      While it's great that you've narrowed-down the problem, are you sure it's an AX node(?)  If you don't mind, please attach the About.vi.
> Is there a way to determine what DLL's are needed and incorporate them into the installer?
Any file - including DLLs - can be bundled with an installer, though, I don't know of any LabVIEW tool or function that lists all project dependencies such as DLLs.
You may not always want to bundle DLLs with your installer.  Some DLLs are installed with Windows Applications and may not work without other software components.
Re: Version info, as of LV8.5 (maybe earlier) there's an Application-class\Version property, though I'm not sure how useful it is.  Here's a good link on .NET methods for getting Version info.  In my opinion, NET is much friendlier than AX, though if these look like what you already have maybe gsussman nailed it after-all!
Yes, the EXEs error message is often (but not always) unhelpful.  Maybe LabVIEW could build/display a list of problems when one or more VIs in an EXE's hierarchy are broken(?)
More later!
SBS wrote:
My app/installer will eventually be placed on a website and downloaded by "average" people, which rules out installing the "full" LabVIEW version and other well-intentioned suggestions.
Is there a way to determine what DLL's are needed and incorporate them into the installer?
Is there a better way to get version information? Most systems have a "tip strip" that displays this info when the cursor is placed on the "exe". Why not have a VI conveniently get the same information without specialized Active X controls?
Why do deficient app's build and subseqently install successfully and then simply refuse to run at all rather than producing an error when the Active X control is invoked within the app? Why doesn't the Application builder identify broken links, missing VI's, and required DLL's during the build process? It seems that having a successfully installed app display the message "The VI is not executable. The full version of LabVIEW is needed." is a rather cryptic error message late in the development process.
Thanks to all who contributed help and direction. Keep it coming.
"Inside every large program is a small program struggling to get out." (attributed to Tony Hoare)