Manually Remove VMware Tools

To uninstall VMware tools from a system the computer MUST be running on VMware.  This can cause  problems in the case of trying to restore a backup that was running on VMware to a physical computer or a different virtual environment.    

Below is an article on how to manually remove VMware tools.

Details

This article addresses these situations:

• 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 is not removed.

 

Note: This article refers to Windows 2003 and below for the registry locationHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\uninstall. The registry location for Windows 2008 and later is HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VMware, Inc.\VMware Tools.

 

To manually remove VMware Tools:

1. Start the virtual machine and log on as the Administrator.
2. Run the VMware Cleanup utility. For more information, see  Cleaning Up After Incomplete Uninstallation on a Windows Host (1308) . 
3. Restart the virtual machine from the guest operating system.
4. Log in as the Administrator.
5. Open the Windows Registry editor. Click Start > Run, type regedit, and press Enter.
6. Browse toHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\uninstall. Search for the branch with a key named DisplayName and has a value of VMware Tools. Delete the branch associated with that entry. Do not delete the entire uninstall branch.
7. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Installer\Products. Search for the branch with the key named ProductName and has a value of VMware Tools. Delete the branch associated with that entry.
8. Browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products. Search for the branch with the key namedProductName and has a value of VMware Tools. Delete the branch associated with that entry.
9. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\VMware.Delete the branch called VMware Tools.
10. Ensure the folder located in %ProgramFiles%\VMware\VMware Tools is deleted.
11. Install the new version of VMware Tools.