Beginning with 2023 Q4 software releases, NI officially stopped creating, shipping, and publishing standalone readme files. Readme components were redistributed to the proper long‑term locations on ni.com:
- System Requirements: Downloads pages or Software Compatibility pages
- Supported OSs & Application Support: Compatibility pages
- Installation Instructions: NI Package Manager User Manual or relevant product manuals
- Security Notices & Critical Updates: Existing Security pages
- New Features & Behavior Changes: Product user manuals or Release Notes
- Supported Hardware: Hardware Compatibility pages
- Deprecations, migrations, and patch info: Additional Release Information section
This ensures all information is placed where customers already expect to find it, and aligns NI with modern documentation standards. Additionally, NI aimed to provide a comprehensive "one-location-for-all-information" user experience by centralizing all release-specific content into a single, user-oriented platform: the Release Notes found on ni.com.
The New Release Notes Experience
To replace readmes, NI expanded and standardized the Release Notes single‑product pages on ni.com. This new experience was created to gather information that exists in several different places on the site into one location for the customer. It also enables the user to sift through the information, filtered by their specific version, and consolidates information for all supported operating systems in one place, removing the need for separate readmes per OS.
Release Notes pages can include the following sections:
- New Features and Changes
- Known Issues and Bugs
- Bug Fixes
- Extended Compatibility Information
- Additional Release Information
If NI does not produce content for a section in a given release, the page automatically displays: “NI did not create this content for this release.”
How to Access the Release Notes
There are two easy ways for users to find release notes for any NI software product:
Option 1: Use the NI Release Notes Landing Page
- Go to the Release Notes overview page:
- Use the Search bar at the top of the page to look up:
- A specific product name (e.g., “LabVIEW,” “NI-DAQmx,” “TestStand”)
- A specific version (e.g., “2024 Q1”, “2023 Q4”)
- Select the matching result to open the Release Notes for that product/version.
This method is ideal when the user knows exactly which product/version they're looking for.
Option 2: Access Release Notes from the Product Download Page
Users can also navigate directly to a product’s download page on ni.com:
-
For software products (such as LabVIEW, TestStand, FlexLogger, VeriStand, etc.), click “View Release Notes”, which opens the automatically generated Release Notes page.
Finding Offline Readmes
For software products 2023 Q3 and earlier, you still can find the offline readme files installed locally.
To find your readme installed locally using the Windows Start Menu:
All NI software and drivers installed locally should include a shortcut to the readme file through the Start Menu navigation. To find it navigate to Start»Programs»National Instruments. You can then navigate to the folder containing your product and you should find a sub-folder labeled either Documentation or Readme, which will contain a shortcut to the readme file.
To find your readme installed locally using Windows File Explorer:
All NI software and drivers installed locally should include a readme file stored locally. You can find these at <Program Files>\National Instruments. Most are located under the product’s main folder, but some may be located under a Documentation or Readme sub-folder.
To find your readme installed locally on Mac OS X:
All NI software and driver installed locally should include a readme file stored locally. You can find these at Applications/National Instruments/. Most are located under the product’s main folder, but some may be located under a Documentation or Readme sub-folder.
Additional Information
- NI readme files can be found in many locations online and on your local machine. NI recommends first trying to access the online readme as these may be updated after release.
- Note: Information contained in a readme is solely for that version. Many products have compatibility pages spanning multiple supported versions, consolidating information found across many readmes. For example, LabVIEW and Windows Compatibility or NI-DAQ™mx and LabVIEW Compatibility.
- NI readme files are no longer published for software versions 2024 Q1 and later. For OS compatibility, review product download page. New Feature information is now included in product User Manuals.