Launching a Windows VM console on VMware workstation fails with an error: VERIFY bora\mks\backends\vulkan\vkrSwapchain.c:371

Products

• VMware Workstation

Issue/Introduction

• The VM console launch for a Windows VM running on VMware Workstation 25H2 fails.
• The error is as shown below
  

Environment

VMware Workstation 25H2 

Cause

The issue occurs when the Workstation attempts to utilize the Vulkan rendering engine for displaying the VM console. This can be due to incompatibility or an unexpected state within the interaction between VMware's graphics engine and the underlying Windows host graphics drivers/configuration.

Resolution

Following workaround can be followed which disables use of Vulkan for the specific VM. 

• Power off the Windows XP virtual machine and exit VMware Workstation.
  
  
• Locate the virtual machine's configuration file (.vmx file) 
  
  Note: The .vmx file for a VMware Workstation virtual machine is typically found in the folder where you created the virtual machine. The default location for Windows hosts is C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Virtual Machines\<VM_Name>
  Refer: https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/308646 
  
  
• Open the .vmx file using a plain text editor like Notepad.
  
  
• Add the following line to the end of the file:
  mks.enableVulkanPresentation=FALSE
  
  
• Save the .vmx file and close the text editor.
  
  
• Restart VMware Workstation and power on the VM.