Uninstall fails after installing Hyper-V role

[jaraco]

I installed VMWare Workstation 7.1.3 on my Windows Server 2008 R2 server to temporarily host some virtual machines. I've since installed the Hyper-V role on that server and migrated the hosts to Hyper-V. I now want to uninstall VMWare Workstation, but when I attempt to do so through the Programs and Features control panel, I get the legacy error message: "[uninstall] Error: This product can only be installed on Windows XP or later. Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, and 2000 are not supported. [ OK ]" Obviously, this message is in error, but by doing some searching, I determined this error actually means that the installer refuses to run on systems which have Hyper-V installed.

Is there a version of the installer that will uninstall VMWare Workstation properly? If not, are there plans to fix this flaw? Do I have any options other than to follow the manual uninstall steps outlined here? I'm wary of the manual uninstall steps because they include over-reaching suggestions like "Delete your appdata directory" (see Manual uninstall step 5b). Uninstalling Hyper-V at this point is not a viable option.

It should be fairly straightforward to add an option to the installer to bypass the Hyper-V check (and then use that option in the registered uninstall command).

[continuum · Accepted solution]

only chance : add a bootoption to the server so it can start with disabled HyperV

1. At the command prompt, type the following:    
   bcdedit /copy {default} /d "No Hypervisor"
2. The above command should say: The entry was successfully copied to {guid}. Copy that guid to the clipboard including the curly braces.
3. Now, type the following command:    
   bcdedit /set {guid_hvoff} hypervisorlaunchtype off
   In the above command, replace {guid_hvoff} with what you copied in step 2. The above command just sets a property in the boot entry that will not load the hypervisor on boot.

then reboot into No HyperV Option and uninstall

[jaraco]

Thanks for the great suggestion and prompt reply.

Your suggestion worked like a charm (and was minimally invasive).

One small note, the commands won't work in powershell unless you escape the curly braces.

[jaraco]

I may have spoken too soon. I was able to uninstall VMWare Workstation, but after restarting again with the default boot profile, the Hyper-V machine doesn't appear to be running. I'll have to investigate to determine why.

[jaraco]

It seems that now when I restart, even with the default boot profile, the Hyper-V Role is not installed. If I attempt to install it, Windows reports that my CPU does not support virtualization.

[continuum]

weird - did you change anything in BIOS in the mean time ?

try a full power down - with 20 seconds without power

check BIOS settings for VT-support

[jaraco]

I have tried those techniques. I have confirmed the processor is properly configured in the BIOS. To be sure, I disabled the VT feature, saved and restarted, then re-enabled the VT feature, then saved, powered off, waited (at least 20 seconds), then powered back on.

It seems as if uninstalling VMWare actually disabled something with the hypervisor, or perhaps having VMWare installed helped enable the virtualization (though on this hardware, I believe I've had in the past Hyper-V installed without VMWare in the mix).

[continuum]

did you try to remove the HyperV role ? ... guess you tried that ...

[jaraco]

So with some help from Microsoft Technical Support, I was able to track down the issue. Apparently, restarting the server with the hypervisorlaunchtype set to Off or uninstalling VMWare Workstation (the only two actions I took) caused the Hyper-V role to be uninstalled. Furthermore, when I restarted the server with the hypervisorlaunchtype set to Auto, I was unable to re-install the Hyper-V role. I was finally able to get the Hyper-V role re-installed by booting with hypervisorlaunchtype set to Off, then restart with it set to Auto. It was very bizzarre. I'll post more complete details in the technet thread.

Thanks again for the help.

[continuum]

thanks for the link and keeping us updated