I'm a long time user and customer of VMware. And there is one thing that is bugging me since all the years: The installer is a complete mess! I don't know if I'm the only one running into this issues on and on again or if the QA of VMware is just that sloppy.
Everytime I want to install an update of VMware, it takes me multiple hours. Because everytime the setup gets stuck at either "Uninstalling Virtual Network Drivers", "Cleaning up Legacy Network Drivers" or "Installing Virtual Network Drivers". When this happens, it kills my network connection, Systray shows a "disabled globe" icon and I have to restart my PC after waiting a good grace period, while still hoping it recovers eventually.
Yesterday I received a notification that the update to Workstation 15.5 is available and tried installing it.
- Uninstall stuck at "Uninstalling Virtual Network Drivers", internet gone, "disabled globe" icon in Systray.
- Waited for at least 20+ minutes.
- Decided to restart Windows.
- Had to manually download VMware 15.5, because the previously installed VMware was already gone.
- Ran the installer.
- Stuck at "Cleaning up Legacy Network Drivers", internet gone, "disabled globe" icon in Systray.
- Waited again 15+ minutes.
- Decided to restart Windows.
- Ran the installer again.
- Stuck at "Installing Virtual Network Drivers", internet gone, "disabled globe" icon in Systray.
- Waited a good time.
- Restarted Windows again.
- Ran the installer once again.
- Finally finished successfully.
- Shut down PC and went home, since it was already getting late.
Next day (today) I came back to the office, turned on PC, got my coffee, started VMware and my guest machine.
- Was wondering, why the USBdevices I need to work are not there.
- Checked VM -> Removable devices
- Everything empty, except a few default devices (CD, Network, Printer, Sound)
- Searched the internet.
- Found that a "VMware USB Arbitration Service" should be running.
- Checked in services.msc and tried starting the mentioned services.
- Can't start. Error 2: File not found.
- Searched the internet again.
- Found suggestion to completely un- and reinstall VMware again and try to run the installer with /clean parameter afterwards.
- Uninstaller stuck at "Uninstalling Virtual Network Drivers", internet gone, "disabled globe" icon in Systray.
- Searched the internet.
- Found a thread mentioning that there is a "VMware network install library executable" process which is "Not responding" which you can kill.
- Did that.
- Uninstaller continued and wanted to restart PC.
- Restarted PC.
- Suddenly Keyboard was not working anymore on the logon screen!
- Could logon using Accessibility tools with On-screen keyboard.
- Device manager showed exclamation mark for the keyboard and details said something about registry errors and "Code 19".
- Spent 1+ hours trying to solve that.
- Solution was to remove everything from "UpperFilters" except "kbdclass" in the registry HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e96b-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
- Started the VMware setup again with /clean option.
- Stuck at "Cleaning Up Legacy Network Drivers", internet gone, "disabled globe" icon in Systray.
- Killed "Not responding" "VMware network install library executable" process again.
- Setup still did not continue though.
- Restarted Windows.
- Started the VMware setup again with /clean option.
- Finally it went through and finished successfully!
- Started VMware and my VM.
- USB devices were there.
- Suddenly internet was gone again. Systray just showed the same "disabled globe" icon.
- Restarted PC.
- Finally, after 2+ hours everything works now!
And seriously, I'm not kidding or exaggerating. Only the keyboard and USB issues were new though. Otherwise this is the exact same process I'm going through everytime I'm trying to update VMware Workstation. No matter what Windows version I'm using. This has already happened with Windows 7, 8, Vista and now Windows 10.
And everytime when it works again, I'm just glad that I can finally continue to work and forget about it. But this time was really a bummer. Don't know what this is or if I'm the only one. But I really wish VMware would do something about it. If they need help debugging I'd be glad to help them!