Customization fails on Windows Vista and Server 2008 with VMTools version before 10.3.0.

Products

• VMware
• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides the workround solution for the issue.

Symptoms:

Guest OS Customization fails on Windows Vista and Server 2008 with VMTools version before 10.3.0.
In the %WINDIR%\temp\toolsDeployPkg.log file, you see that "Command Completed with exit code -1073741511"
 

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.0.2

Cause

This is a MSVC dlls dependency issue in Guest OS customization binary.
There is a similar issue described in KB 88079 (It has been fixed in vCenter Server 8.0 GA and later versions).
Visual Studio 2022 redistributable no longer supports Windows Vista and Server 2008 pre-R2.

So the fix in KB 88079 no longer works for Windows Vista and Server 2008 since vCenter Server 8.0. update 2.

Resolution

Currently there is no resolution.

Workaround:
Update the vmware tools version to 10.3.0 or above.