VMWare Player fails to install on Win7 x64 Home Premium

[pswayne]

I have tried several times, and can't install VMware Player on my Win7 x64 Home Premium notebook. VMware Player.msi won't run. ( I had no problems installing it on my desktop, however.) Here's the fail section of the log file:

20120713200840:INFO    CMSIHelper::InitMsiParameters: MSI Parameters: DATACOLLECTION="1" TRANSFORMS=":1033" REMOVE="" COMPONENTDOWNLOAD="1" REBOOT="ReallySuppress" AUTOSOFTWAREUPDATE="1" DESKTOP_SHORTCUT="1" QUICKLAUNCH_SHORTCUT="1" INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Player\" ADDLOCAL="ALL" STARTMENU_SHORTCUT="1"
20120713200840:INFO    CMSIHelper::InitMsiLogging: Successfully enabled logging to file C:\Users\Pat\AppData\Local\Temp\vmsetup.20120713200746.vmware player.msi.install.log, with mode 7967
20120713200840:INFO    CInstallMSIOperation::Execute: Preparing to install VMware Player.msi, options: uninstall_on_rollback: 1, use_internal_ui: 0, parameters: DATACOLLECTION="1" TRANSFORMS=":1033" REMOVE="" COMPONENTDOWNLOAD="1" REBOOT="ReallySuppress" AUTOSOFTWAREUPDATE="1" DESKTOP_SHORTCUT="1" QUICKLAUNCH_SHORTCUT="1" INSTALLDIR="C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Player\" ADDLOCAL="ALL" STARTMENU_SHORTCUT="1"
20120713200927:INFO    CInstallMSIOperation::Execute: Finished installing msi [1603]
20120713200927:ERROR** CBootstrapCmd::RunOperation: Operation 'InstallMSI' failed!
20120713200927:INFO    wWinMain:Checking exceptions [26]
20120713200927:INFO    wWinMain:Handle error
20120713200927:INFO    HandleError: Handling error: [26] lang [1033]
20120713200927:ERROR** HandleError: Encountered fatal error id: 26
20120713200927:ERROR** HandleError:   Message: [The MSI 'C:\Users\Pat\AppData\Local\Temp\vmware_1342224466\vmware player.msi' failed.]
20120713200927:ERROR** DisplayErrorMain: Displaying error message
20120713200927:ERROR** DisplayError  Error [The MSI 'C:\Users\Pat\AppData\Local\Temp\vmware_1342224466\vmware player.msi' failed.]

Any help would be appreciated.

[WoodyZ]

Are you starting the install by right-click > Run as Administrator?

Have a look at VMware KB: A VMware product fails to install with error 1603

[a_p_]

If Woody's hint does not solve the issue, please provide some details on what happens when you start the installation. If you don't see anything happen at all, this might be due to a conflict with a process "fixcamera.exe". If this process is running, kill it in the task manager and start the Player installation again.

André

[pswayne]

I've tried everything above and then some, and no success. As for killing processes in task manager, I tried killing everything that I thought wasn't needed.

[pswayne]

Here's what I've done so far. As I said, I was able to install VMware Player on my desktop. So I copied the contents of Program Files (x86)\VMware onto a USB drive, and then onto the same location on my notebook. (BTW, it's a HP Pavilion DV6). Then I exported the registry entries containing "VMware" from the desktop onto .REG files, and loaded them on the notebook. The program runs on the notebook, but freezes when I try to create a virtual machine. I guess this notebook just doesn't like VMware.

[a_p_]

Although copying files from one PC to another may have worked in the good old MS-DOS times, this usually does not work for Windows. In addition to files and registry settings, VMware Player installs drivers, ...

What you may try to do (after cleaning up what you did so far):

• delete any remaining "vmware_xxxxxx" directories in "C:\Users\Pat\AppData\Local\Temp"
• disable UAC (at least temporarily)
• temporarily disable and A/V software
• double check the MD5 hash of the VMware Player's installation package
• kill "fixcamera.exe" or any other webcam software in the task manager
• start the VMware Player installation by right clicking and "Run as Administrator"

If this does not work, please expalin what you see (any installation windows which open, ...)

André

[pswayne]

I gave up and installed VirtualBox. It installed fine, and works fine. Try it if you're having trouble with VMware.

https://www.virtualbox.org/

[Wirlog]

Abrir el paquete de instalación, cuando descomprime y va a pantalla de bienvenida dejarla allí sin hacer nada.

Dirigirse a C:\users\NAME\Appdata\Local\Temp\vmware_xxxxxx

Buscar vmeareplayer_x64.msi y ejecutarlo.

Instala el programa a la prefección.

Cancelar el instalador original.

Es un muy grueso error que viene desde el primer VMWARE PLAYER que se intenta correr en Windows 7.

Mala calidad y testing pero un mucho mejor producto que VirtualBox

[Aoxo]

I saw another thread here with the same issue.  There is a bug with a windows component that is causing msiexec to crash.  You can disable this useless component.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/443895?tstart=0

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766341%28v=ws.10%29.aspx#BKMK_Procedures

[leendert1]

I ran into exactly the same problem, both with vmplayer and vmworkstation. They would fail with the same error as above. When I extracted the VMworkstation file and executed the vmwareworkstation_x64.msi manually it installed fine. However when I tried to do that for tools-*.exe it would still fail (with the same error as above because they use the installer).

Eventually I traced it down to wrong ACLs on \Users\joe\AppData\Local\Temp, which the installer uses for it temporary files. Administrator had no rights to write or delete files in that Temp directory.

I fixed that with:

cd \Users\joe\AppData\Local

icacls Temp /grant Administrators:(D,WDAC)

I can now run VMware-workstation-full-10.0.3-1895310.exe and install it.

I'm not sure which program changed the ACLs on the Temp directory. I read somewhere the Acrobat may be doing that but I haven't confirmed.

Better error reporting would have been useful in resolving ...

Hope this helps.

FYI I'm using 8.1 enterprise but the error was the same.

[logscale]

I succeeded my installing with following steps.

1.Simply start VMware-player-6.0.3-1895310.exe as an Administrator.

2.While installation dialog is still on your screen, copy entire C:\Users\yourname\AppData\Local\Temp\vmware_xxxxxx directory to somewhere else.

3.Launch cmd.exe as an Administrator, and change directory to where you have just copied.

4.Enter the following command: msiexec.exe /i vmwareplayer_x64.msi EULAS_AGREED=1

[greatvovan]

Thank you, logscale, it really works!

In my case I also had to remove hcmon driver after failed install as answered here: Installing VMware Player via MSI failed - Super User

[arunasirigere]

I had exactly same problem and installation failed with above given suggestions.

Then, I realized that there are windows updates being installed in the background.

I let the updates installation finish, rebooted the PC and tried re-installing again.

BOOOOM.. I got it installed