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We've had our two virtual servers migrated to a new service provider and they converted them from VMware to Hyper-V. This left behind "VMware Tools", which should be removed. But from "Apps & features", when I choose to uninstall it, it shows a small uninstallation dialog for a second or two, then it vanishes and nothing else happens.

How do I uninstall VMware Tools in this situation?

The virtualized OS is Windows Server 2016.

With help of @vssher comment I trie this command line:

msiexec.exe /uninstall {742FCBAF-EE5D-48B2-9E95-DA0513B79570} /lv!* vmwareuninst.log

Looking at the log, I find this:

MSI (s) (4C:F8) [10:31:19:589]: Doing action: VM_LogStart
Action start 10:31:19: VM_LogStart.
MSI (s) (4C:40) [10:31:19:589]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\Windows\Installer\MSIC327.tmp, Entrypoint: VMLogStart
MSI (s) (4C:9C) [10:31:19:604]: Generating random cookie.
MSI (s) (4C:9C) [10:31:19:604]: Created Custom Action Server with PID 6776 (0x1A78).
MSI (s) (4C:F0) [10:31:19:620]: Running as a service.
MSI (s) (4C:78) [10:31:19:636]: Hello, I'm your 64bit Impersonated custom action server.
CustomAction VM_LogStart returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)
Action ended 10:31:19: VM_LogStart. Return value 3.
MSI (s) (4C:F8) [10:31:19:808]: Doing action: VM_SendMsiLogToHostOnError
Action start 10:31:19: VM_SendMsiLogToHostOnError.
MSI (s) (4C:A0) [10:31:19:823]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\Windows\Installer\MSIC412.tmp, Entrypoint: VMSendMsiLogToHost
CustomAction VM_SendMsiLogToHostOnError returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)
Action ended 10:31:19: VM_SendMsiLogToHostOnError. Return value 3.
Action ended 10:31:19: INSTALL. Return value 3.

Looks to me like it's trying to send log to the OS hosting the VM, which of course won't work, since the new provider's host is not "VMware aware".

So, I suspect I need to do some kind of manual uninstallation. Any ideas? Maybe I should just ask VMware support...

Kjell Rilbe
  • 533

4 Answers4

1
  1. Download an installation package of VMware tools (newer version than installed prefered)
  2. Run in CLI “setup64 /c” This uninstalls VMware Tools and performs a complete clean up.

If it won’t help, you can “upgrade” VMware tools, reboot and start uninstallation.

batistuta09
  • 687
1

This is an old thread, but I figured I would put the correct answer and method for obtaining the uninstall using the best method.

When I deploy VMware Tools using Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, I use the MSI method to uninstall VMware tools. The appropriate command can be found in the uninstall keys within the Windows Registry, which is located here from a path perspective: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

This example would uninstall VMware Tools 12.3. MsiExec.exe /I{AF174E64-22CF-4386-A9EC-73F285739998}

Robert_IT
  • 11
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This is the official manual procedure to make a clean uninstall of VMWare Tools from inside the Windows Guest OS.

In addition to following the article, I first had to stop and remove all the running VMWare Windows Service because they locked the Program Files directory and prevented its removal from disk:

Example of removing the VMWare Tools service. There are other VMWare services in the list. Remove them all.

sc.exe stop vmtools
sc.exe delete vmtools

Resolution The process to perform a clean uninstall of VMware Tools in Windows Guest OS:

  1. Power on the Virtual Machine
  2. Start the Windows VM.

Note: Take a backup or snapshot of the virtual machine before proceeding with the further steps.

  1. Manually delete VMware Tools installation files under these locations. Note: Select the appropriate user and username in the machine in the path.
  • C:\Program Files\VMware
  • C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware
  • C:\Program Data\VMware
  • C:\users\username\App data\VMware
  1. Start Regedit > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\

Delete all VMware related drivers including vmci, vm3dmp, vmaudio, vmhgfs, vmmemctl, vmmouse, VMRawDisk, VMTools, vmusbmouse, vmvss, vmware physical disk helper services, VMwareCAF*.

  1. Delete VMware.Inc from Regedit > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware.Inc
  2. Delete the same driver under C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\
  3. Remove the VMware SVGA driver from Device Manager
  4. Start Windows normally

You won't need this last step if you're only uninstalling.

  1. Install VMware Tools For more information, see: Install VMware Tools in VMware products
John K
  • 2,900
0

so far, no luck with any of these workarounds. I no longer have access to vmware support and all my VMs were migrated to AWS with this tools installed and they are getting flagged as outdated and a security vuln by security but I can't get rid of them. any other suggestion would be appreciated.

Wil
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