Tektronix OpenChoice Desktop is the duct tape that bridges that gap. It’s free, it’s stable, and it turns your expensive scope into a smart sensor for your PC.
The lets you drive your scope remotely. But the Waveform Display is where the magic happens. You can drag and drop live waveforms directly into a spreadsheet. tektronix openchoice desktop
Imagine you are characterizing a power supply’s inrush current. You tweak the load. Click "Acquire" on your PC. The waveform appears in Excel. You don't save, transfer, or rename anything. It’s just there . Most people use the "Save Image" button. That’s fine. But OpenChoice has a Waveform to Excel add-in. Tektronix OpenChoice Desktop is the duct tape that
Stop Rewriting Waveforms: Why Tektronix OpenChoice Desktop is Your Lab’s Secret Weapon But the Waveform Display is where the magic happens
That’s why I felt like I’d discovered cheat codes when I finally dug into . It’s been around for years, but it remains one of the most underutilized productivity tools in the modern test lab.
This isn't just a screenshot pasted into a cell. It’s actual time and voltage vectors. You can perform FFTs, calculate RMS values across specific time windows, or subtract two traces to find the noise floor—all in real time, all in a tool you already know how to use.
OpenChoice Desktop kills the USB shuffle. It turns your Tektronix scope (from the TDS2000 series all the way up to modern MDOs) into a direct peripheral of your PC. Connect via Ethernet, GPIB, or even the old-school RS-232, and suddenly your scope is just another instrument window on your desktop. The killer feature isn't just saving data—it’s seeing data live.