Obtaining the latest version of vmss2core.exe without installing VMware Workstation Pro
Article ID: 439391
Updated On:
Products
Issue/Introduction
This article explains how to obtain a newer version of the vmss2core.exe utility without fully installing VMware Workstation Pro on Windows.
vmss2core.exe is a tool used by developers to convert virtual machine checkpoint state files into a memory core dump file. Currently, vmss2core.exe can be downloaded as a standalone utility in the Free Downloads section of Broadcom Support Portal (BSP), however, the version of vmss2core.exe available in the BSP is an older version (build 8456865) and does not support modern operating systems such as Windows 11 and Windows Server 2025. For these newer operating systems, a newer version bundled with VMware Workstation Pro for Windows must be used. Typically, the vmss2core.exe executable would be located in one of the following directories after installation:
Windows (32-bit):
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\
Windows (64-bit):
C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\
Environment
VMware Workstation Pro on Windows
Cause
The version of vmss2core.exe available as a standalone download is an older version and does not support newer Windows operating systems. To extract the memory core dump file for the newer operating systems, the version of vmss2core.exe bundled with VMware Workstation Pro must be used but typically requires a full installation of VMware Workstation Pro.
Resolution
To obtain the latest version of vmss2core.exe without fully installing VMware Workstation Pro, perform the following steps:
- Download VMware Workstation Pro, eg: "VMware-Workstation-Full-25H2u1-25219725.exe"
- Using an archiver tool such as 7-Zip, open the downloaded archive:
- Locate the Workstation.cab file and open it:
- Locate and highlight the vmss2core.exe file within the Workstation.cab file and press F5 to Copy To a location on the local machine eg: C:\Temp\vmss2core:
- Next, within the same Workstation.cab file, locate _zlib1.dll, press F5 again to Copy To the same directory used above.
- Close out of 7-zip and navigate to the local directory containing vmss2core.exe and _zlib1.dll and rename the DLL file to remove the underscore in the filename so that it is just: zlib1.dll.
- Once the DLL file is renamed and both vmss2core.exe and zlib1.dll are together in the same directory, the VM checkpoint state files (eg: .vmem, .vmsn, .vmss) can be copied into the directory and the tool can be ran against the virtual machine checkpoint files. See: Converting a snapshot file to memory dump using the vmss2core tool for more detail on the tool usage. (Note: for the example below, no VM files were copied, hence the "Missing .vmss filename" message, however, the newer build number 25219725 can be observed.)
- If the following error is received upon running the tool,
"The code execution cannot proceed because zlib1.dll was not found. Reinstalling the program may fix this problem.", then either the DLL file was not copied or renamed correctly.
Additional Information
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