How to Install and Activate LabVIEW 2015 Student Version

kristielAll Topics, NI | National Instruments, Support, Tutorial

Share this Post

We recently started offering LabVIEW 2015 Student Edition. We have had some customers reporting confusion and issues about the installation and activation process. This post will seek to provide clarity on the installation process for this program.

LabVIEW 2015: Step-by-Step Download, Installation and Activation Instructions

GETTING STARTED: 
Upon purchasing the software from us, you will be sent a download link for the product. Follow that link and you will wind up on our download page for the program. Be sure to read any of the information that is posted near the top of the page. This information is relevant to the installation and skipping over it may result in some confusion. Upon scrolling down the page, you will see a section like this:

NI LabVIEW 2015 Download

Click on the link that is relevant to your operating system. This will begin the download. The download is about 5 GB large for the Windows installation. The Mac version is roughly 1.5 GB. Once the file is downloaded, you will notice that it is a compressed file. This means that you need to extract the data.

FOR WINDOWS: You will notice that it is a .rar file. RAR files cannot be extracted natively in Windows. You have to use a separate program to get data from a RAR file. I recommend using WinRAR to extract the files. Download WinRAR and run the executable. Once WinRAR is installed, you will have to right-click on the RAR file that you downloaded for LabVIEW and choose “Extract To LabVIEW-2015-Student-Edition-win”.

Extract to LabVIEW 2015
This will extract all of the data into a folder that resides in the same location as the RAR file. This new folder will contain the installer. Open up the new folder and run Setup.exe.

LabVIEW Setup exe

FOR MAC: The Mac download will come as a zip file. I don’t have a Mac, but from what I have read, all you have to do is double-click on the zip file and it will prompt the extraction wizard. Follow the directions of the wizard and extract the data. Once it’s extracted, there should be a setup.dmg file that you run to start the installer.

Once setup is running, click Next on the first window.

On the Activation window, choose that you have a serial # and wish to activate. Be sure the checkbox beneath the option is checked. That checkbox will automatically activate all products that are associated with your serial #. So, if you have the student grad pack, your serial # will automatically activate all the products you have a right to use:

NI LabVIEW Installation Option

On the next window, you will be asked to put in a serial #. Go ahead and put it into the box at the top and click “Add Serial #”. Your serial # Will be a 9-digit series of letters and numbers. A typical serial number will look something like this M12B34567. Once the serial # is added, click “Next”.

INSTALLATION
The next window will show you the products that you can install. To make sure a product gets installed, you need to left click on the Hard Drive icon to the left of the program name and choose “Install”. By default, LabVIEW 2015 and VI Package Manager are set to install. If you have the student grad pack, your installed software should look like this:

LabVIEW Student Grad Pack

Once that’s selected, click Next. You will then be asked whether you want NI to automatically search for updates, etc. This is up to you. Once you’ve made a decision, click Next. You will then be asked where you want to save the programs to. Typically, the default directories are fine. You will be asked several times for file locations. Fill out the information as needed and hit next. When asked to accept the EULA’s, accept them and hit next.

ACTIVATION:
Lastly, you will be asked to activate. I recommend doing this now so you don’t have to worry about it later. Choose “Login to your NI User Account”. If you do not have one, choose “Create a new Account and fill out all the information asked of you. Once you put your credentials in, hit Next. You will be asked if you are the end user of the products. 99% of the time this is true, so make sure that box is checked and hit Next. Keep hitting Next until the product starts to install. Depending on your hardware, this could be a quick or slow process. It’s a lot of software so be patient.

MISSING SOFTWARE ON STUDENT GRAD PACK?
If you have the student grad pack, you may notice that some of the included software is not listed on the installer. This is because some of the products you are entitled to come as add-ons. You will find these products on our download page that you were sent in your confirmation email.

LabVIEW Grad Pack Addons

ALMOST FINISHED…
Lastly, if you installed the software without activating it, then you will still need to activate the product. To do this, do a search on your computer for NI License Manager. Open it up.

In the hierarchy, expand out “LabVIEW 2015” > Development System > Right-Click on Student Edition and choose “Activate”

NI License Manager

Proceed through the prompts on the activation wizard to activate the software. If you don’t know your serial #, you can login to our website at www.studica.com by clicking the “Log In” button at the top right of the page. Once you’re logged in with your account, click “My Account” at the top right of the page then choose “My Downloads”. You should see the LabVIEW product on the list and you should be able to get your serial # from here.

Hopefully this has been helpful. As always, if you have any issues installing or activating your product, feel free to contact our support at [email protected]. View more National Instruments products for students and faculty at Studica.com.

Blogger: Mark Philipp, Application Engineer at Studica

Share this Post