msvcr71.dll is removed during installation or post installation of VMware Tools

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• During installation or post installation of VMware Tools the application fails with an error:

The program can't start because msvcr71.dll is missing from your computer.

 

• You might see, similar messages with DLLs ending in 71.dll or 90.dll after upgrading to VMware Tools 10.3.0.

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5

Cause

This issue may occur when failed third-party applications did not add a dependency reference count on these DLLs at installation time.

Resolution

To resolve this issue:

1. Download the file 55513_VMware_vc71_redists_x86.zip attached to this KB and install VMware_vc71_redists_x86.exe contained within. Doing so will add a dependency reference count on the DLLs.
2. Install or reinstall VMware Tools on the machine

Note: Starting from version 10.3.0, VMware Tools no longer ships these Visual C++ run-time redistributables for Visual Studio 2003. If you still have applications depending on them, install VMware_vc71_redists_x86.exe prior to VMware Tools upgrade.