Troubleshooting "error generating preview" in Installer

Question

From time to time, I have run into this maddening condition where I build an installer and it will not run because it reports “error generating preview” errors on the EXE for which I am trying to build the installer.  Most often, I can build the EXE just fine, without errors.  The run button does not show any problems, and the application EXE runs without issue.  When I try to build the installer, I get the error.  I have scoured NI’s web site and find many people with this problem, loads of “try this” type advice, and reports of “I fixed it” that often don’t make any sense.  It is nearly impossible to troubleshoot this problem in an orderly, sensible way.  Sure there are some build log files that can be activated, and you can look through them, but rarely is there anything “telling” in these rather verbose dumps (if they are created at all).  How is it that the Installer builder can notify me that there is an “error generating preview”, but cannot point me at the source of the error?!  How insane is that?
I would like to put out a passion plea to National Instruments Engineering, or to one of you many LabVIEW community gurus’s to provide some detailed instructions for diagnosing, finding, and fixing these vexing errors.  Can someone please write up some sort of step by step for this diagnosis?
The second thing I would love is for NI to report more detail in the Installer builder as to what is causing the error.  Telling me there is an error (that you just found) but keeping the issue a secret does not help me get my job done.
If there is already a detailed step-by-step guide for diagnosing and fixing these issues, I apologize for this post and would be very grateful if someone would kindly point me to this oracle of wisdom.
Thanks,
-cb

Answer 1

Greetings Community,
Just circling back to report out on what I did to get my install build to work again.  This list contains things that *probably* fixed this issue on my system, although it is a bit of a mysterious issue so somewhat hard to nail down.  Anyway, these comments may help someone some day.
What might prevent the build of an installer
You have a VI in a Dialog Disable Structure that has a problem.  It could be a broken VI or a left-over VI that points to a VI that no longer exists.  Whatever the problem, just because it is "commented out" does not mean that the compiler will ignore it.  By the way National Instruments, I think this is a bug.  Why does the compiler try to process things that are commented out?
You have a String that is wired to the selector of a Case Structure.  I ran into this once.  I could not build the installer.  Somehow I found a reference online where someone commented on this being an issue.  I found my problem VI, replaced the string with a typedef into the selecter and poof, it worked again.
You have a hard-coded path reference in your VI that points to a directory that does not exist (invalid path).  In my case recently, I had a string with a path wired into a build path reference.  The directory was used elsewhere to open VI's on the fly.  For some reason this was OK with the EXE builder, but not OK with the installer builder.
Here is a "gotcha" - if you move a LabVIEW project to another directory, the installer forgets all of the file dependencies you have created in the installer setup.  When I get a new version of LV, I create a LV project directory called "LabVIEW 2013" and move my previous (and still active) projects into that directory.  I know this seems kind of dorky, but it helps me keep things straight.  When I move my projects, the installer break.  Trying to re-construct the build settings has been troublesome and can lead to odd "error generating preview" messages because something wasn't re-built correctly.
Well, that's what I know.  The F2 patch for 2013 did not fix my most recent problem, #3 above did.  If anyone finds other build issues to look for while troubleshooting, can you please post to this thread?
Thanks,
-cb