Removing the ThinPrint software installed by VMware Tools

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

The VMware Tools provided with ESX 4.0 also contain ThinPrint modules for virtual printing. These modules can interfere with a virtual machine hosting ThinPrint's .print Engine.

Symptoms:

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware Player 7.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Windows)
VMware Player 3.x (Windows )
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware Player Pro 7.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 6.x (Windows)
VMware Player 6.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 8.x
VMware Player 3.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 7.x (Linux)
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware Player 5.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 12.x (Linux)
VMware Player 4.x (Linux)
VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Player Pro 7.x (Windows)
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware Workstation 10.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Player 12.x (Windows)
VMware Player 7.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 7.x (Windows)
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware Fusion Pro 8.x
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Linux)
VMware Player 5.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 4.x
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Windows)
VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware Workstation Pro 12.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Linux)
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware Workstation 10.x (Windows)
VMware Player 4.x (Windows)
VMware Player 6.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 6.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Player 12.x (Linux)
VMware Fusion 5.x

Resolution

To resolve this interference, the ThinPrint module must be uninstalled.

To completely remove the files installed by ThinPrint:

1. Log in as a local administrator.
   
   
2. Delete all printers created by ThinPrint.
   1. Go to the Printers control panel.
      • Windows XP, 2003: Start > Settings > Printers
      • Windows Vista, 7, 2008: Start > Control Panel > View devices and printers
        
        
   2. Right-click any printer whose name begins with TP, and select Delete.
      
      
3. Stop the VMware Tools service.
   1. Open the Services control panel
      • Windows XP, 2003: Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services
      • Windows Vista, 7, 2008: Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Services
        
        
   2. Right-click the VMware Tools Service, and select Stop.
      
      
4. Reinstall VMware Tools. For more information, see General VMware Tools installation instructions (1014294).
   
   Note: Do not do a Typical or Complete installation. Select Custom, when prompted, and deselect Virtual Printing.
   
   
5. Restart the guest when prompted.
   
   
6. Stop the Print Spooler service.
   1. Open the Services control panel
      • Windows XP, 2003: Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services
      • Windows Vista, 7, 2008: Start > Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Services
        
        
   2. Right-click Print Spooler, and select Stop.
      
      
7. Delete the registry keys installed by ThinPrint.
   1. Open the registry editor.
      • Windows XP, 2003: Go to Start > Run, and type regedit. Click OK.
      • Windows Vista, 7, 2008: Go to Start and type regedit. Press Enter.
        
        
   2. Navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows NT x86\Print Processors. Right-click tpwinprn, and select Delete. Click Yes to confirm deleting the key and its subkeys.
      
   3. Navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE. Right-click ThinPrint, and select Delete. Click Yes to confirm deleting the key and its subkeys.
      
   4. Navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitors. Right-click ThinPrint Print Port Monitor for VMware, and select Delete. Click Yes to confirm deleting the key and its subkeys.
      
      Note: If the virtual machine is 64-bit, check the 4 separate subkeys under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\ .
      
      
8. Delete the files installed by ThinPrint.
   1. Open a command prompt. For more information, see Opening a command or shell prompt (1003892).
      
   2. Enter these commands:
      
      del /F C:\Windows\System32\spool\prtprocs\w32x86\TPWinPrn.dll
cd C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\oemprint.inf*\
del tp*.dll
del tp*.bin
del tpprint.cat

      Note: You may need to take ownership of the files in the C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\oemprint.inf*\ directory. For more information, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 308421.
      
      
9. Restart the guest.

Additional Information

• For a method that can be used specifically with a Workstation 6.5.x guest, see this ThinPrint forum post.
  
  
• For an alternate method that can be used specifically with an ESX 4.0 guest, see the PDF provided by ThinPrint which is attached to this article. The PDF is named named "1013363_ VMware - clean up tools from ESX 4.0 - v0.3.pdf ".

VMware Tools によってインストールされた ThinPrint モジュールを削除する
移除由 VMware Tools 安装的 ThinPrint 软件