This file contains important information about STS Development Software 19.5, including installation instructions and new features. STS Development Software is a collection of NI software for developing, executing, and debugging test programs on a non-STS computer.
Included Components
System Requirements
Supported Controllers and Operating Systems
Installation Considerations
Installation Instructions
Microsoft Visual Studio Support
Product Security and Critical Updates
New Features
What's Changed
Known Issues
Bug Fixes
Accessing the Documentation
Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10
STS Development Software Drops Support for Windows 7 (32- and 64-Bit), Windows Server 2008 R2, and All 32-Bit Windows Operating Systems in 2021
Legal Information
Included Components
STS Development Software 19.5 includes the following major components:
STS Development Software 19.5
TestStand 2019 f2
NI TestStand Semiconductor Module™ 2019 f3 (TSM)
LabVIEW 2019 f2
LabVIEW 2019 SP1 f1 Run-Time Engine
NI-Digital Pattern Driver 19.0.1
NI-DCPower 20.0.0
NI-SCOPE 19.1.1
NI-Sync 19.5.0
NI-RFPM 19.0.2
NI-RFmx 19.1.1
NI-RFSA 19.6.0
NI-RFSG 19.6.0
STS Auxiliary Mixed Signal Tools 19.5.0
STS Auxiliary RF Tools 19.5.0
TSM RF Steps 19.5.0
STS Handler and Prober Drivers 19.5.0
STS Maintenance Software 19.5.0
System Requirements
STS Development Software 19.5 has the following requirements:
STS Development Software 19.5 supports the following controller:
PXIe-8880
STS Development Software 19.5 supports the following operating systems:
Windows 10x64, build 1809 or later (NI recommends Windows 10x64 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2019)
Windows 7 SP11 (NI recommends Windows 10)
Note STS Development Software 19.5 does not support certain versions of Windows 10. Refer to Editions of Windows 10 Supported by NI Software for more information.
1 NI software is signed with a SHA-256 certificate. Windows 7 SP1 requires Microsoft updates to support SHA-256. Refer to Microsoft KB3033929 for more information about how to install this security update.
Note Refer to STS Development Software Drops Support for Windows 7 (32- and 64-Bit), Windows Server 2008 R2, and All 32-Bit Windows Operating Systems in 2021 for information about future OS support.
Note In 2016 STS Development Software dropped support for Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and installations of Windows 7 without any service packs. In 2017 STS Development Software dropped support for all 32-bit Windows operating systems. STS Development Software will not install or run on an unsupported OS. You cannot deploy or distribute applications that use STS Development Software to an unsupported OS. Additionally, after installing STS Development Software, you cannot use any installers built on this computer with any version of LabVIEW, LabWindows™/CVI™, NI TestStand™, or Measurement Studio on an unsupported OS.
For more information about the changes to our OS support for 2016, visit ni.com/r/OSSupport2016.
Installation Considerations
NI now offers two installation paths for STS software—installing STS Software through the STS Version Selector and installing STS Development Software through NI Package Manager.
NI recommends installing through NI Package Manager if you are using a non-STS computer and do not need to switch among versions of STS software. Use STS Development Software 19.5 to develop, run, and debug STS test programs on a non-STS computer without access to NI instruments. When test program development is complete, transfer the test program to an STS from which you will deploy the test program into a production environment.
Note If you install STS Development Software 19.5 through NI Package Manager, you cannot downgrade your software version. NI does not recommend updating components of STS Development Software on the non-STS computer. The set of software you use to develop an STS test program must match the set of software on the STS from which you will deploy the test program.
If you need to switch among versions of STS software on a non-STS computer, install through the STS Version Selector. If you used a mechanism other than the STS Version Selector 19.0.0 or later to install any NI software on the STS or non-STS computer, you must reimage the computer before installing the latest version of the STS Version Selector. Refer to the STS Software 19.5 Readme for more information about installing STS Software through the STS Version Selector.
Installation Instructions
NI installs STS Development Software 19.5 using NI Package Manager. If you do not already have NI software installed, STS Development Software 19.5 installs NI Package Manager to handle the installation of NI software.
Visit ni.com/r/NIPMDownload to download NI Package Manager. Refer to the NI Package Manager Manual for more information about installing, removing, and upgrading NI software using NI Package Manager.
In NI Package Manager, use the search bar on the Browse Products tab to locate Semiconductor Test System Development Software.
Click the Semiconductor Test System Development Software tile, click Install, and follow the on-screen prompts.
Note If Windows Update is enabled, the installation process might hang if Windows Update interferes with the installation of Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Run-Time. Visit ni.com/r/exjq43 for more information and steps to resolve this issue.
Use the serial number that is included with your software to activate STS Development Software 19.5. For more information on STS Development Software 19.5 activation, refer to National Instruments Software Activation.
Note You must restart after you activate an STS software version.
Microsoft Visual Studio Support
If you are using NI .NET Class Libraries, .NET Framework 4.0 (minimum) is required. The NI .NET Class Libraries can be used with Visual C# or Visual Basic .NET in any Visual Studio version that can target .NET Framework 4.0 or .NET Framework 4.5.
For information about versions of the .NET Framework and the drivers each supports, refer to National Instruments .NET Driver Support.
Product Security and Critical Updates
Visit ni.com/security to view and subscribe to receive security notifications about NI products. Visit ni.com/critical-updates for information about critical updates from NI.
Spectre and Meltdown
Refer to Meltdown and Spectre - Processor Speculative Execution Vulnerabilities (Windows) for more information about addressing Spectre and Meltdown issues.
New Features
STS Development Software 19.5 adds the following major new features.
Hardware Support for the PXIe-4147—Added support for the PXIe-4147, a high-density precision PXIe SMU for high-power, high-pin-count applications.
Hardware Support for the PXIe-5831—Added support for the PXIe-5831, a 44 GHz, 1 GHz bandwidth PXI VST for stringent test challenges of 5G NR and other wireless standards.
Performance Optimization for RFPM Steps—Replaced the previous versions of the Configure steps and Measure steps for LTE, SpecAn, WLAN, and 5G NR in RFPM Steps to reduce test time.
Test Program Development and Debugging Improvements—In addition to test time improvements, RF Steps 19.5 added new steps for performing Bluetooth tests. You can now use the STS RF Debug Panels to perform debugging on the PXIe-564x and the PXIe-584x as a VST.
What's Changed
STS Development Software 19.5 includes updates to the following major components.
Note This is not an exhaustive list of updated products in STS Development Software.
Previous Version
Current Version
TestStand 2019 f1
TestStand 2019 f2
TSM 2019 f2
TSM 2019 f3
STS Maintenance Software 19.0.1
STS Maintenance Software 19.5.0
NI-RFPM 19.0.0
NI-RFPM 19.0.2
NI-RFSA 19.1.6
NI-RFSA 19.6.0
NI-RFSG 19.1.6
NI-RFSG 19.6.0
NI-DCPower 19.1.0
NI-DCPower 20.0.0
NI-Sync 19.0.0
NI-Sync 19.5.0
STS Development Software 19.5 Auxiliary Components
STS Development Software 19.5 changes the following auxiliary components.
Note This is not an exhaustive list of changed auxiliary components in STS Development Software.
Previous Version
Renamed/Current Version
TSM RF Steps 19.1.0
TSM RF Steps 19.5.0
STS Auxiliary RF Tools 19.1.0
STS Auxiliary RF Tools 19.5.0
STS Auxiliary Mixed Signal Tools 19.0.0
STS Auxiliary Mixed Signal Tools 19.5.0
STS Handler and Prober Drivers 19.0.0
STS Handler and Prober Drivers 19.5.0
Known Issues
You can access the known issues list online. Refer to the private NI STS Technical Support Community, located at https://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-STS-Technical-Support/gp-p/5300, for an up-to-date list of known issues in STS Development Software 19.5. You can work directly with NI Services personnel contracted on your project to request to be added to the NI STS Technical Support Community.
Bug Fixes
You can access the bug fixes list online. Refer to the private NI STS Technical Support Community, located at https://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-STS-Technical-Support/gp-p/5300, for an up-to-date list of bug fixes in STS Development Software 19.5. You can work directly with NI Services personnel contracted on your project to request to be added to the NI STS Technical Support Community.
Accessing Documentation
Select Start»National Instruments»STS Help to access the STS Help, which includes information about STS Development Software 19.5.
If you open help files directly from the <;Program Files>\National Instruments\STS\Documentation\Help directory, National Instruments recommends that you open STSDocumentation.chm first because this file is a collection of help files and provides a complete table of contents and index.
STS manuals are available as PDFs in the <;Program Files>\National Instruments\STS\Documentation\Manuals directory. You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed to view the PDFs.
Using NI Software with Microsoft Windows 10
Microsoft Windows 10 is the latest version of the Windows operating system and features significant changes compared to previous versions. Windows 10 introduces several new capabilities and also combines features from both Windows 7 and Windows 8. For more information about NI support for Windows 10, visit ni.com/windows10.
STS Development Software Drops Support for Windows 7 (32- and 64-Bit), Windows Server 2008 R2, and All 32-Bit Windows Operating Systems in 2021
STS Development Software will drop support for Windows 7 (32- and 64-bit), Windows Server 2008 R2, and all 32-bit Windows operating systems starting in 2021. Versions of this product that ship after May 1, 2021, may not install or execute correctly on these operating systems. For detailed information about NI operating system support, visit ni.com/r/win32bitsupport.
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End-User License Agreements and Third-Party Legal Notices
You can find end-user license agreements (EULAs) and third-party legal notices in the following locations after installation:
Notices are located in the \_Legal Information and directories.
EULAs are located in the \Shared\MDF\Legal\license directory.
Review \_Legal Information.txt for information on including legal information in installers built with NI products.
U.S. Government Restricted Rights
If you are an agency, department, or other entity of the United States Government ("Government"), the use, duplication, reproduction, release, modification, disclosure or transfer of the technical data included in this manual is governed by the Restricted Rights provisions under Federal Acquisition Regulation 52.227-14 for civilian agencies and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement Section 252.227-7014 and 252.227-7015 for military agencies.
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Patents
For patents covering the NI products/technology, refer to the appropriate location: Help» Patents in your software, the patents.txt file on your media, or the NI Patent Notice at ni.com/patents.