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Unable to upgrade existing VMware Tools

Details

You are unable to upgrade the existing installation of VMware Tools because the previous installation fails to be removed
The uninstall feature of VMware Tools fails to complete
You cannot uninstall VMware Tools
You need to remove VMware Tools
You need to manually uninstall VMware Tools

Solution

This issue may occur because the previous version of VMware Tools was not fully removed.

To manually remove VMware Tools:

Windows XP virtual machines

Start the virtual machine and log on as the Administrator.
Open the Windows Registry editor. Click Start > Run , type regedit, and press Enter.
Delete these registry keys, if they exist:
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Features\C2A6F2EFE6910124C940B2B12CF170FE
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\C2A6F2EFE6910124C940B2B12CF170FE
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Features\C2A6F2EFE6910124C940B2B12CF170FE
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\C2A6F2EFE6910124C940B2B12CF170FE
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\C2A6F2EFE6910124C940B2B12CF170FE
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{FE2F6A2C-196E-4210-9C04-2B1BC21F07EF}
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.

Windows 7 virtual machines

Start the virtual machine and log on as the Administrator.
Open the Windows Registry editor. Click Start, type regedit, and press Enter.
Delete these registry keys, if they exist:
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Features\B634907914A56494B87EA24A33AC1F80
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\B634907914A56494B87EA24A33AC1F80
- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{D86ADE52-C4D9-4B98-AA0D-9B0C7F1EBBC8}
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Features\B634907914A56494B87EA24A33AC1F80
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\B634907914A56494B87EA24A33AC1F80
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\B634907914A56494B87EA24A33AC1F80
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{9709436B-5A41-4946-8BE7-2AA433CAF108}
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.

All Windows virtual machines

Search the registry for vmware and delete all associated entries.
Close the registry editor.
Open Windows Explorer.
Delete the folder %ProgramFiles%\VMware\VMware Tools.
Restart the virtual machine
Install the new version of VMware Tools.

Update History

03/20/2010 - Spelled out full registry path for HKLM, i.e HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. 03/20/2010 - Removed the line "The download link is at the bottom of the article" from step 2, as there is no link at the bottom of the article. 03/20/2010 - Removed "if applicable" from step 12, as this is confusing when looking at the title of the article. 03/20/2010 - Removed Fusion from the products list. 10/01/10 - Added symptoms 11/05/2010 - Re-wrote article to clarify registry lcoations, paths. Re-added Fusion. 12/29/2011 - Added registry keys for Windows 7

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