Unable to install VMware Tools 11.1 or later on Windows Vista SP2 or Server 2008 SP2

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
VMware Tools 11.1 or later installation will fail in VMs with Windows Vista SP2 or Server 2008 Sp2 with an error:

For Windows Vista SP2, you see error message similar to:

Setup cannot continue.  This program requires that you have Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or greater installed in this virtual machine.
For details, refer to the following VMware Knowledge Base article 75163.

For Windows Server 2008 SP2, you see error message similar to:

Setup cannot continue.  This program requires that you have Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or greater installed in this virtual machine.
For details, refer to the following VMware Knowledge Base article 75163.

Environment

VMware Tools 11.x

Cause

For VMware Tools version 11.1 or later, releases will no longer support Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2.
Note: The oldest supported versions of Windows for these releases of tools is now Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or  Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1).

Resolution

To resolve this issue, install VMware Tools versions prior to 11.1 from VMware Tools packages download or 

upgrade the Windows Vista SP2 or Server 2008 Sp2 or Server 2012 to a newer supported OS version.