VMware Tools installation in non-US-English 32-bit Windows rolls back and fails with MSI error status 1603
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VMware Tools installation in non-US-English 32-bit Windows rolls back and fails with MSI error status 1603

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Article ID: 343414

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Updated On:

Products

VMware Desktop Hypervisor VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article describes a specific issue. If you experience all of the above symptoms, consult the sections below. If you experience some but not all of these symptoms, your issue is not related to this article.



Symptoms:

  • Updating VMware Tools in in a localized (non-US-English) 32-bit Windows virtual machine fails
  • Installing VMware Tools in a non-US-English 32-bit Windows virtual machine fails
  • VMware Tools begins to install, then the installation rolls back
  • You see this in the Event Viewer Application log:

    Windows Installer installed the product. Product Name: VMware Tools. Product Version: 8.6.0.6868. Product Language: 1031. Manufacturer: (NULL). Installation success or error status: 1603.
    Source: MsiInstaller
    Event ID: 1033
  • The last line of the %temp%\vmmsi*.log file is similar to:

    MSI (c) (08:30) [10:44:25:520]: MainEngineThread is returning 1603
     
  • Further up in the msi log, the custom action VMRegisterCpl fails with return value 3:
     
    • MSI (s) (04:10) [09:07:34:774]: Executing op: CustomActionSchedule(Action=VM_RegisterCpl.869A7E00_8665_0000_83A8_EF0F76CF0001,ActionType=3073,Source=BinaryData,Target=VMRegisterCpl,CustomActionData=C:\Programme\VMware\VMware Tools\)
      MSI (s) (04:28) [09:07:34:790]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\WINDOWS\Installer\MSI3E.tmp, Entrypoint: VMRegisterCpl
      Aktion beendet um 09:07:39: InstallFinalize. Rückgabewert 3.
       
    • On Windows Vista / Server 2008 or newer, the log of the VMRegisterCpl custom action failing looks similar to:

      MSI (s) (0C:3C) [10:32:03:426]: Executing op: CustomActionSchedule(Action=VM_RegisterCpl.869A7E00_8665_0000_83A8_EF0F76CF0001,ActionType=3073,Source=BinaryData,Target=VMRegisterCpl,CustomActionData=C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\)
      MSI (s) (0C:44) [10:32:03:426]: Invoking remote custom action. DLL: C:\Windows\Installer\MSIF0C5.tmp, Entrypoint: VMRegisterCplCustomAction VM_RegisterCpl.869A7E00_8665_0000_83A8_EF0F76CF0001 returned actual error code 1603 (note this may not be 100% accurate if translation happened inside sandbox)
      Aktion beendet um 10:32:03: InstallFinalize. Rückgabewert 3.
       
  • The %temp%\vminst*.log file indicates that the VMRegisterCpl custom action did not successfully register the DLL and instead rolled back with VMRollbackRunRegistry:

    tools-build-xxxxxx: date time --- VMRegisterCpl() : Registering the tools control panel
    ...
    tools-build-xxxxxx: date time Begin Logging
    tools-build-xxxxxx: date time --- VMRollbackRunRegistry()

    Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.　
     



Environment

VMware Workstation 11.x (for Windows)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation Pro 12.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 12.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Linux)
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware Workstation 8.x (Linux)

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting ESXi 5.0 and Workstation 8. This issue is resolved in vSphere 5.0 Update 1. You can download the latest version of vSphere from the VMware Downloads.

To work around this issue, leave the old version of VMware Tools installed. If you have already uninstalled the old VMware Tools:

ESXi

Install the ESX 4.1 U1 version of the 32-bit Windows VMware Tools. To do so, download the Tools from http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/4.1u1/windows/x86/VMware-tools-windows-8.3.7-381511.iso.

Workstation

Install the Workstation 7 version of VMware Tools for Windows. To do so, download the Tools from: http://download3.vmware.com/software/WS7-windows.iso.zip

Once you have the Tools downloaded, you need to uninstall VMware Tools from your virtual machine, unzip the downloaded file, replace the Workstation 8 Tools .iso with the Workstation 7 Tools .iso, then install VMware Tools in your virtual machine again.

Uninstalling VMware Tools

To uninstall VMware Tools in Windows XP:

  1. Click Start > Control Panel.
  2. Open Add/Remove Programs.
  3. From the list of installed software, select VMware Tools.
  4. Click Remove.
  5. When prompted, click Yes to restart Windows.
  6. Once restarted, open My Computer and navigate to C:\Program Files and remove the VMware folder if it exists.

To uninstall VMware Tools in Windows Vista and Windows 7:

  1. Click Start > Control Panel.
  2. Click Programs and Features.
  3. From the list of installed software, select VMware Tools.
  4. Click Uninstall.
  5. When prompted, click Yes to restart Windows.

Replace the Windows.iso file

To replace the Windows.iso, copy it to this location of the host computer:

  • 32-bit OS: C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation
  • 64-bit OS: C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation

Reinstall VMware Tools

Once the Windows.iso has been replaced, start the virtual machine and install VMware Tools by going to VM > Install VMware Tools.


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