Unable to uninstall VMware Tools from Windows on 3rd party hypervisor

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Unable to uninstall VMware Tools from a Windows OS running on 3rd party hypervisor(e.g. Hyper-V, KVM) or cloud infrastructure
  • Uninstalling VMware Tools from [Control Panel] -> [Programs] -> [Uninstall a Program] shows no errors or messages
  • However, VMware Tools reports an unrecoverable error every time after rebooting Windows OS
  • VMware Tools remains in [Control Panel] -> [Programs] -> [Programs and Features]

 

Cause

VMware Tools itself and its installer detect which hypervisor is used and are not designed to run on 3rd party hypervisor

Resolution

Workaround 1: Uninstall VMware Tools manually

Workaround 2: Uninstall VMware Tools before migrate VMs from vSphere to 3rd party hypervisor