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Installing and upgrading VMware Tools on Windows VMs

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This article describes how to use VMware Tools on Windows virtual machines. For Linux virtual machines, see Installing and Upgrading VMware Tools on Linux Virtual Machines.

Overview

VMware Tools provides many specific drivers to run your x86 virtual machine operating system. Among others, VMware Tools provides the video driver that allows you to control the virtual machine mouse cursor and network drivers required for virtual machine network connectivity.

If you have problems with the mouse cursor or connecting to the virtual machine, make sure that you are using the Skytap-compatible version of VMware Tools. Newer versions of VMware Tools might not work with Skytap virtual machines.

Checking

the VMware Tools Version

To verify which version of VMware Tools is installed on a Windows virtual machine

  1. , look for the VMware Tools icon in the system tray. Move the mouse pointer over the icon. The VMware Tools message can be upgraded, VMware Tools installation is not up-to-date. needs updating

    If the VMware Tools icon is not

    in the system tray, VMware Tools is not installed.

  2. To check which version is installed, right-click the VMware Tools icon and select About VMware Tools. The About VMware Tools dialog box displays information about the currently installed version. Toolbox-win

Upgrading VMware Tools

To upgrade your version

of VMware Tools

  • Follow the procedures below to install VMware Tools

. Installing VMware Tools These instructions describe the process of

installing

VMware Tools

on Windows Server 2012 R2. The steps for other versions of Windows may be different.

  1. Before you edit the virtual machine, create a template for it. If any problems arise, you can restore the virtual machine from this template.
  2. Navigate to the environment details page of the environment that contains the virtual machine that you want to upgrade. Make sure that the virtual machine is powered on and logged in.

  3. On the icon of the virtual machine that you want to update, click (Load ISO). load ISO

  4. Click All

    5. .

  5. Select the ISO to install VMware Tools for Windows. select ISO

    6. Click

  6. (Load ISO).

    7. If the installer

  7. does not automatically load into the virtual machine, go to Computer and double-click the CD-ROM to start the installer

    .

    If you do not have mouse control on the virtual machine, use the Tab, Spacebar, Enter, and arrow keys on the keyboard to navigate the user interface.

    <img

    8. src=”https://help.skytap.com/images/docs/win-vmware-tools-drive.png” alt=”Start-installer” />

  8. Follow the instructions for a complete installation

    . Complete-install After the installation is complete, restart the virtual machine.

    <img src

    9. =”https://help.skytap.com/images/docs/win-vmware-tools-restart-prompt.png”

  9. alt=”Restart”

    />

  10. After the virtual machine restarts, check for video driver updates

    . Sample: Verify the

    video driver in Windows Server 2012 R2

    To check which driver the virtual machine is using

    1. Right-click Start, and then click Device Manager

      2. .

    2. Expand Display adapters to view the current driver. If the driver listed is not VMware SVGA 3D, follow the instructions below to update it. If the driver listed is the VMware SVGA 3D driver, make sure you are using the latest version.

    To check the WDDM driver version

    1. Right-click the current driver and click Properties

      2. . Check the Driver

    2. Date on the Driver tab. Be sure to use the VMware SVGA 3D driver from 7/12/2016 (older versions don’t provide as much video RAM).

    To upgrade to the latest version of the VMware SVGA 3D

    driver

    1. Right-click the current driver and click Update Driver Software. Click
    2. Browse My Computer and select C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\video_wddm.

Uninstalling

VMware Tools Click

  1. Start > Control Panel

    . If you see by category, select Uninstall

    • a program. If you see by
    • icons

    2. , select Programs and Features.

  2. In the Programs and Features window, select VMware Tools, and then click Uninstall. Uninstall

After you uninstall VMware Tools and restart your computer, you must reinstall VMware Tools to restore mouse control.

Troubleshooting “Setup cannot continue because a later version of this product is already installed” error The most common error when upgrading VMware Tools is

Setup cannot continue because a later version of

this product

is already installed.

error

This error typically occurs when importing a virtual machine into Skytap. To resolve this error:

Uninstall the latest version of VMware Tools (see Uninstalling VMware Tools).

  1. Install the recommended version of Skytap (see Installing
  2. VMware Tools).
admin