You are about 1/2 way there. Yup the .nce can be added to the installer and this works well for cDAQ DAQmx and VISA aliases. It does fall down on USB DAQ devices. BUT, with USB DAQmx devices this works wonders
especially if you go to nirvana by building that code into an exe and following the link to configure NI Devmon to automatically run that exe when the USB DAQmx device is detected.
One of these days I should nuggetize that with step-by-steps and example vis to do the "regedits" programatically- those regedit exes can also deploy and run from your installer:smileywink:
In short- DAQmx stuff needs to be created once! Preferably during development and exposed on the target in MAX ( if the deploy target contains no debug deployment - use project Tasks if a debug deployment enabled target is specified untill MAX has context awareness for all those *.n[i]ce things) to aid system maintenance, integration and repair. DAQmx MAX config support will also need to be added to your installer.
If the target is a medium or high- mix system (Lots of exe's) use the system API to load the *.nce so the next app doesn't overwrite your stuff.