Where Do I Find the LabVIEW ini File in Mac OS X?

Issue Details

Where is the LabVIEW.ini file in Mac OS X? 

Note: LabVIEW 2023 Q3 is the final release of LabVIEW for macOS. Starting with releases in 2024, LabVIEW is available on Windows and Linux OSes.
 

Solution

Mac OS X applications don't use INI files like Windows executables, so instead a file named LabVIEW.app <LabVIEW version number> Preferences is used in place of the labview.ini file. This file can be found at the following path:

\Users\<your user>\Library\Preferences\

Note that this folder is hidden in OS X 10.8 and above, therefore, additional steps are required to make it visible. You can show these hidden files by following the steps in this online document.

This file is a text file that uses the same INI tokens as its Windows counterpart. Some INI tokens that refer to components specific to Windows LabVIEW such as ActiveX will have no effect on the Mac OS X version of LabVIEW. 

Additional Information

Setting INI tokens in LabVIEW 

• LabVIEW 7.x and Earlier: In LabVIEW 7.x and earlier, the tokens in the LabVIEW preferences file use a ":" operator instead of a "=" operator (as used in Windows) to assign a value to a particular INI token.
  • For example, the IsFirstLaunch INI token has the following form in Windows: IsFirstLaunch=True. Mac OS X this same token uses the ":" operator: IsFirstLaunch: True
• LabVIEW 8.x: In LabVIEW 8.0, 8.2, 8.5, and 8.6 the tokens in the LabVIEW preferences file can use either the ":" or "=" operators to assign a value to an INI token. Therefore either of the following two lines could be used in the LabVIEW preferences file to achieve the same function: IsFirstLaunch: True or IsFirstLaunch=True.
  • Note: In LabVIEW 8.6 and previous the preferences file does not use INI keys. In Windows an INI key is denoted by being wrapped with square brackets.
• LabVIEW 2009 and Later: The LabVIEW preferences file for LabVIEW 2009 and later will use the same syntax for both tokens and keys as its Windows counterpart. From a user's perspective both of these files should look exactly the same.