workstation 9 enter license key error

[metal_man]

When I attempt to enter the license key for my workstation 9 installation I receive this error:

Followed by:

I am a member of the administrators group on the system. I have attempted to logon as local system administrator, instead of my domain member account, and also receive the errors. I am running Windows 2008 R2, with the latest updates/patches as of about 2 weeks ago. I also tried right-clicking on VMware Workstation and selecting Run as Administrator, but ended with the same error.

Any thoughts or recommendations for next steps?

[onoski]

I would uninstall the software then logon as the local administrator on the server before reinstalling workstation version 9. Anyways give this a go and see if it works by accepting the license key.

Best wishes

[metal_man]

Found the problem. I knew my system had McAfee AV installed, and so had it disabled during the install. However, my system also had McAfee's Host Intrusion Prevention Services (HIPS) installed. HIPS was blocking the changes to the registry from the VMware Workstation install.

I hadn't noticed the icon for HIPS when logged on as my accont. But, when logged on as the local administrator I did see it. Then checked its log and found all the related errors and warnings.

So, disabled HIPS and the install and license registration completed successfully.