When the upgrade process of VMware Tools is incomplete, you can uninstall and then reinstall VMware Tools.

In a vSphere and open-vm-tools deployment, if you decide to use packages specific to Linux operating systems to manage VMware Tools, and if you already used vSphere to install VMware Tools, you must uninstall the existing VMware Tools. For more information about Linux OSPs for VMware Tools, see Operating System Specific Packages for Linux Guest Operating Systems.

Note: VMware Tools is available only for very old Linux releases. The open source project open-vm-tools provides Linux support, and Linux vendors and Linux communities use it to deliver open-vm-tools for Linux releases. To install, upgrade, and uninstall the open-vm-tools on the system, use the software management tools provided by the Linux operating system.

For more information about the VMware Tools compatibility with guest operating systems, see KB 90230.

Prerequisites

  • Power on the virtual machine.
  • Log in to the guest operating system.

Procedure

  1. Select a method to uninstall VMware Tools.
    Operating System Action
    Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Windows 10, or Windows 11 In the guest operating system, start the Control Panel applet, and select Programs and Features. Select VMware Tools and click Uninstall.
    Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 In the guest operating system, select Programs and Features > Uninstall a program.
    Windows XP and earlier In the guest operating system, select Add/Remove Programs.
    Linux Log in as root and enter vmware-uninstall-tools.pl in a terminal window.
    Mac OS X, OS X, or macOS Use the Uninstall VMware Tools application, found in /Library/Application Support/VMware Tools.
    Windows on ARM In the guest operating system, start the Control Panel applet, and select Programs and Features. Select VMware Tools and click Uninstall.
    Windows Server 2008 R2 and later In the guest operating system, start the Control Panel applet, and select Programs and Features. Select VMware Tools and click Uninstall.
  2. Restart the guest operation system.

What to do next

Reinstall VMware Tools.