Comments on: Submitting VMware Workstation 7 to install

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:00:35 +0000

@Proxx- Glad that your problem is resolved. As I mentioned above, editing the Windows Registry is generally not recommended, and deleting this particular registry key can affect other VMware products that may be installed (i.e. other than Workstation). Happy New Year!

By: Proxx

Proxx — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:01:25 +0000

Hi, guys!
TheB1GDude and Craig Randall first of all thank you!!!

I had the same problem with MSI installer after uninstall.
I tried all mentioned ways including msizap but no luck, finally I tried to remove HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc. – and then I installed 5.99 older version and then after reboot I used 8 workstation installer to uninstall 5.9.9. and this worked perfectly well no I go the recent 8.01 version of vmware thanks to you guys.
Cheers and happy holidays!

By: cland216

cland216 — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 18:13:49 +0000

Confirmed. (In my case…) Use the 7.1.2 installer.

Apparently the 7.1.4 installer is not as good, no matter what I tried I’d still get the same errors with the 7.1.4 installer, even after using MSIZAP

By: Craig Randall

Craig Randall — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 14:40:40 +0000

@jack2011- Glad that you’re up and running now. Thanks for sharing your success.

By: jack2011

jack2011 — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 02:22:49 +0000

Thanks, Craig.

Thanks for your post, I got a clue. I was able to install it successfully.

1. Backup Registry
2. Delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.
3. Search “tools-*” in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\
4. Delete each CLSD that belongs to “tools-**.exe”
5. Install Vmware 7.1.x

That’s all.

By: Craig Randall

Craig Randall — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 19:13:16 +0000

@ TheB1GDude- Happy to be of some assistance, and thank you for sharing your insights, too. In general, I advise folks to avoid hand-editing the Windows Registry, but if you know what you’re doing (as you do), it can indeed be a shorter route to certain solutions. Cheers…

By: TheB1GDude

TheB1GDude — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 16:34:04 +0000

Hi Craig,

I know that this is an old post but I just wanted to say that through a bizarre series of events I experienced the same issue earlier today and wanted to thank you for this post which I found to be probably the most helpful one on the internet when trying to deal with the issue.

The bizarre series of events included a BSOD during the uninstall process of the VMWare 7.1 software which on reboot resulted in the error message you show at the start of your post.

I was however able to find an alternate way of resolving the problem and that was simply the deletion of the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.

The deletion of this key and it’s sub-keys removes all of the installation parameters the install checks for on start up thus stopping the not very helpful MSI ” failed error message.

Once deleted I was able to run the VMWare 7.1 installer and re-install the software, during the re-install the package noted a number of issues and self-resolved them, once the software was re-installed I was asked to reboot at which point I could uninstall and revert back to the 6.5 software.

This was using the VMware-workstation-full-7.1.2-301548 software package so for earlier versions I can not say whether or not it will work but it is certainly worth attempting as it makes the process very simple.

Again thank you for all of your initial trouble-shooting into the problem.

By: Craig Randall

Craig Randall — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:59:21 +0000

@Mike- It’s true that ‘with a GUID, much can be accomplished in RegDB.’ Unfortunately, the Windows Registry is a fickle entity; so, one small edit done incorrectly can cause one a ton of pain.

By: migee

migee — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:51:31 +0000

I had similar troubles with VMWare Player except I couldn’t track down what it was trying to uninstall. What I did was run some uninstaller software (revo uninstaller) which will read the uninstaller and delete what it didn’t. Basically this cleared out the directories and most of the registry bindings. After that I ran a VMWare cleanup script. There was still no success after that. However I think the two did progress everything somewhat.

Lastly I visited the log file Craig outlined and found the GUID of the program it was trying to remove. Simply searched and removed about 3 or 4 entries in the registry. I started up the program had still told me it wanted to uninstall ”. Hm. But this time it had went through. Guess that did the trick.

By: Craig Randall

Craig Randall — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:14:46 +0000

@Dinesh- If you no longer have the original MSI package to relate, you should be able to visit the VMware product archives to locate the older, missing version and realize the MSI from within the source EXE.

By: mouszeman

mouszeman — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:33:02 +0000

Just finished 2 hours of uninstalling an – unsopported – version of VMWare 5.5 from Windows7. I first followed the instructions here: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1308
but then got stuck with the – The MSI “” failed – problem. Thankfully I found your post and MSIZAP did the trick for me!

By: dishu2511

dishu2511 — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 22:28:06 +0000

Hi Craig – I m glad to c your post,,,,,,,,,,,,
m also having same problem, I wannt to install workstatn 7 so i tried to uninstall the previour version, but i cud’nt do it, so i googled the problm, while searching in my registry I deleted some entries, so when I again tried to uninstall workstatn then it started showing me “MSI failed”,,,,,
when i manualy tried to uninstall it using control panel ,it strtd askn me abt the location of MSI and giving me the error message”THE INSTALLATION SOURCE FOR THIS PRODUCT IS NOT AVAILABLE. VERIFY THE SOURCE EXITS ANND THEN YOU CAN ACCESS IT.

I tried the method which was used by bod i.e. run MSIZAP with the fault entr of registry ,I think MSIZAP file was corrupted, but i cudnt find it anywhere else,,,,,,,,,,
plz help me out i wnt to install wrkstatn 7, my whole work is pndng,,,,,,,,,,,,
thnx
Dinesh

By: Craig Randall

Craig Randall — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 22:30:11 +0000

@Bod- I’m glad that you were helped by this post. Thanks for sharing.

By: Bod

Bod — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:37:53 +0000

Thank you Craig, your solution saved me from continued frustration As per VMware KB, I had tried cleans, manual removal of drivers, files etc, all without success.

For myself the installer was getting hung up on the uninstallation of the similarly useful “(Version:)” – which I determined to be an early version of VMplayer 1. Fortunately I retained a copy of the MSI from 2006 and was able to install then uninstall to clear out the mess.

I would not have not considered such a plan without your success story. Many thanks.

By: Craig Randall

Craig Randall — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 19:04:38 +0000

I just heard about the significant earthquake about 200 miles SW of Santiago, Chile. Hope that you're OK.

By: Craig Randall

Craig Randall — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:00:10 +0000

Thanks for sharing. It makes sense that the Windows Registry (RegDB) is involved, since the file system showed "all clean" in my case. Windows Installer (MSIEXEC.EXE) leverages RegDB for persistence. While I have yet to use MSIZAP, I have used other, similar tools.

By: cmeneses

cmeneses — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:19:58 +0000

Hi again!!!

Ok, I’ve tried all above, but no help. The error remains.

So I’ve made some research, folowwing your tip on the log file. Then I’ve found that VMWare couldn’t retrieve product information correctly for product code {xxx}. Then I remembered that some time ago I had the same problem with another software, and another product code, and I used a software (from MS) called MSIZAP. So I downloaded it again. and ran it with the failed product code referenced in log file.

C:\>msizap.exe TP! {98D1A713-438C-4A23-8AB6-41B37C4A2D47}

Then all orphaned installation information left for this product code went away and now I can install without problems.

I hope this helps somebody, or maybe helps you when having similar problems.

Cheers!

Cristian Meneses A.
Santiago – Chile

By: Craig Randall

Craig Randall — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:00:13 +0000

Hi Cristian. Thanks for sharing. I hope that the above does indeed help you, and I’ll look for your update. Cheers…

By: cmeneses

cmeneses — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:39:58 +0000

Hi Craig !

I’m facing the same problem, and I’m trying to solve it using your method, so while I’m writing this, I’m also installing VMWare 6.0 so that VMware 7.0 can installer remove it..

I’ll keep you informed if this works for me …

Many thanks !

Cristian
Santiago, Chile.