Solution
This error only occurs when including NationalInstruments.Common.dll version 17.5 in an installer through the use of a merge module. This issue can be worked around by using an alternate deployment strategy.
The best solution is to use Measurement Studio Installer Builder to create the installer for the application, and manually include the NationalInstruments.Common .NET Runtime Installer. These runtime installers can also be added to any installer tool that supports including .MSI files. The runtime installers can be found on disk at C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\MDF\ProductCache. Note that C:\ProgramData is hidden in Windows by default.
If the installer tool does not support adding in .MSI installers, then NationalInstruments.Common.dll and its required dependencies can be manually added to the installer project. This style of deployment is referred to as an XCOPY deployment.
Note: If you do not use Measurement Studio Installer Builder and would like to use the NationalInstruments.Common .NET Runtime Installer, ensure you add the command-line flag INSTALLLEVEL. You must explicitly set the INSTALLLEVEL flag to 1000 when running the NationalInstruments.Common .NET Runtime Installer standalone or through another installer method. For example, the command to run the Runtime Installer (.NET 4.0) from the command-line is the following:
MStudioCommonRuntime.v400.msi INSTALLLEVEL=1000