Restoring a snapshot fails with an Insufficient Permissions error

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

• Restoring a snapshot fails
• If you try to restore a snapshot, Workstation displays an error similar to:
  • Error restoring snapshot: Insufficient permissions.
    
    Or
     
  • Unable to restore snapshot: Insufficient permissions.

Resolution

This issue occurs when you have customized the Windows folder containing your virtual machine files. When you customize a folder, Windows changes the folder's state to read-only, which prevents Workstation from restoring a snapshot. This issue persists even when you remove the customization.

To work around this issue, run this command at a Windows command line prompt:

attrib -S -H -R /s /d \

If the attrib command does not work by itself, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article 256614. This article instructs you to add a DWORD value to the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer .

After you edit the key, you can remove the read-only attribute with the attrib command. The Restore Snapshot command should then work correctly and without error.