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. Navigate to:
3. • In Fusion, Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools.
   • In Workstation, VM > Install VMware Tools.
      
4. In the Windows virtual machine, click Start > Run, type cmd, and click OK. The Command Prompt opens.
5. In the command prompt, enter D:.
6. Run this command:
    
7. • For 32 bit guest operating systems: setup.exe /c
   • For 64 bit guest operating systems: setup64.exe /c
     
     This uninstalls VMware Tools and performs a complete clean up.
      
8. When prompted, allow setup to continue the uninstallation of VMware Tools.
9. After VMware Tools is uninstalled, reboot the virtual machine.
10. Reinstall VMware Tools.
    
    To reinstall VMware Tools:
11. • In Fusion, navigate to Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools.
    • In Workstation, navigate to VM > Install VMware Tools.

Additional Information

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