How Can I Launch an External Web Browser from LabWindows™/CVI™?

Updated May 5, 2023

Reported In

Software

  • LabWindows/CVI

Operating System

  • Windows

Issue Details

I would like to launch an external web browser (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc) from LabWindows™/CVI™. Is there a way to do this?

Solution

To launch an external application, you can use the LaunchExecutableEx function. This function runs a program and returns without waiting for the program to exit. There is an example that ships with LabWindows™/CVI™ where you can check how to use the function mentioned before. The example can be found in Help >> Find Examples... >> Communicating with External Applications >> Operating Systems >> launchexe.cws.


Another option is using the ShellExecuteEx() function available in the Windows SDK.

Additional Information

You can also implement a Microsoft Web Browser Active X in a LabWindows™/CVI™ panel. An example of this can be found in Help >> Find Examples... >> Communicating with External Applications >> ActiveX >> WebBrowser.cws.