Installing VMware Tools in a Fusion virtual machine running Windows

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

This article provides the steps to install VMware Tools in a virtual machine running Windows. The VMware Tools installation process is practically automatic, but sometimes there is a need to run it manually.

For general information about VMware Tools, see Installing and Using VMware Tools

For information on installing VMware Tools in a virtual machine running Linux , see:

• Installing VMware Tools in an Ubuntu virtual machine
• Installing VMware Tools in a Linux virtual machine using Red Hat Package Manager (RPM)
• Installing VMware Tools in a Linux virtual machine using a Compiler

For information on installing VMware Tools in a virtual machine running Mac OS, see Installing VMware Tools in a Mac OS Guest
For General VMware Tools installation instructions see: Install VMware Tools

 

Environment

VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware Fusion 2.x
VMware Fusion 4.x
VMware Fusion 5.x
VMware Fusion Pro 11.x
VMware Fusion 8.x
VMware Fusion Pro 10.x
VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Fusion Pro 8.x
VMware Fusion 10.x
VMware Fusion Pro 12.x
VMware Fusion 12.x
VMware Fusion 3.x
VMware Fusion 11.x

Resolution

Normal Installation

To install VMware Tools in a Windows virtual machine:

1. Start the virtual machine. Wait for the Operating System to load, and log in.
2. In the menu bar, go to Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools. A dialog box opens.
3. Click Install.
4. Click Next to progress through the installation.
5. Select Complete unless you are excluding certain features of Tools, and click Next.
6. Click Install.
7. When the installation completes, click Yes to restart your virtual machine.

Manual Installation

If the installation does not start automatically, manually install VMware Tools even when triggered from the Virtual Machine menu. To manually install VMware Tools, connect a disk image (a virtual CD) to your virtual machine which contains the necessary drivers.

 

Note: Enable Auto-Play, else the installation does not run automatically and you must start the installation manually.
 

To connect the disk image:

In Fusion 10.x, 8.x, 7.x, 6.x, 5.x, and 4.x:

1. Open a new Finder window and go to the Applications folder.
2. Right-click the VMware Fusion application and select Show Package Contents.
3. In the new window, go to Contents > Library > isoimages.
4. Copy windows.iso to the desktop of the Mac.
5. Navigate to Virtual Machine > CD/DVD > CD/DVD Settings.
6. Ensure that Enable CD/DVD Drive option is set to ON.
7. From the dropdown, select Choose a disc or disc image.
8. Browse to the Desktop folder.
9. Select windows.iso, and click Open.

In Fusion 3.x and earlier:

1. Navigate to Virtual Machine > CD/DVD > CD/DVD Settings.
2. Ensure that the drive is connected.
3. Select Use disk image.
4. Go to Macintosh HD > Library > Application Support > VMware Fusion > isoimages.
5. Select windows.iso, and click Open.

To start the installation manually:

Note: If the Virtual Machine menu option reads Cancel VMware Tools Installation and the installer does not start, perform these steps:

1. Double-click My Computer (or Computer in Windows Vista, 7 and 8). For Windows 10 Click Start > File Explorer > This PC.
2. Double-click your CD/DVD drive (usually D:\VMware Tools).
3. This launches the setup program. If it does not, and instead opens the contents of the drive, double-click setup.exe.
4. Reboot when prompted.

To verify that the installation was successful, go to Control Panel > Programs and Features and check if the VMware Tools entry is available.

Additional Information

Remember: When you start the VMware Tools installation process, a virtual CD-ROM (ISO image) is mounted on your virtual machine's CD-ROM drive. There is no physical VMware Tools CD.

If you encounter any errors when installing VMware Tools, see Troubleshooting a failed VMware Tools installation in Fusion

To perform a silent install of VMware tools:

1. Open a command prompt
2. Change directory to the location of the VMware tools installer.
3. Run this command:
   
   setup.exe /s /v"/qn REBOOT=Force"
   
   The virtual machine reboots after the installation is over.