Uninstalling VMware Tools in a Windows virtual machine using the command line

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor
• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to uninstall VMware Tools in a Windows virtual machine using the command line. You may want to use this procedure if the VMware Tools installation or uninstallation fails with error codes, such as Error 1316, Error 1606, or Error 1603.

Resolution

To uninstall VMware Tools from your virtual machine:

1. Power on the virtual machine.
2. Mount the tools ISO to the virtual machine using the menu options.
   • Fusion, Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools.
   • Workstation, VM > Install VMware Tools.
   • vSphere UI: In the Hosts and Clusters view, right-click the desired virtual machine and select Guest OS -> Install VMware Tools 
3. Login to Windows Guest using an account having permissions to install/uninstall privileges,
4. Depending on the OS drive configuration, the ISO will be mounted with a drive letter (Ex: D: or E. You can confirm this using File Explorer)
5. Open the command prompt -> click Start > Run, type cmd, and click OK. 
6. In the command prompt, switch to the CD Rom drive by entering the drive letter. (ex: D:)
7. Run the following command to start the uninstall wizard:
   • For 32 bit guest operating systems: setup.exe /c
   • For 64 bit guest operating systems: setup64.exe /c
     
     • Note: VMware Tools version later than 12.4.x, supports only 64 bit operating systems and setup64.exe is not available in the ISO. Instead run setup.exe on these versions. 
8. Follow the prompts in the uninstallation wizard to complete the process.
9. This uninstalls VMware Tools and performs a complete clean up.
10. After VMware Tools is uninstalled, reboot the virtual machine.

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:
This method uninstalls VMware Tools and does a complete cleanup in a headless mode.