VMware-viclient-all-6.0.0-3016447.exe broke Console on ESXi 6.0 and ESXi 5.5 hosts

[vlab2014]

Installed VMware-viclient-all-6.0.0-3016447.exe and it broke the Console: Failed to resolve ENGINE_load_aesni: 127

Uninstalled and installed older VMware-viclient-all-6.0.0-2741530.exe, still same error.

Loaded up procexp and found that it is launching:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VMware\VMware Remote Console Plug-in 5.5\Internet Explorer\vmware-vmrc.exe

when connecting to ESXi 6.0 host

Attempted to connect to an ESXi 5.5 host, same error, console does not load.

Finally, connected to ESX 5.0 and everything works because it launches a different VMware VMRC Plug-in.

Have no 5.1 hosts to test.

Everything was working until VMware-viclient-all-6.0.0-3016447 was installed.

Also this CPU has the AESNI instruction (Ivy Bridge)

[Techie01]

What was the version of vi-client which was installed before in the machine. I was able to install 30116447 and was able to connect to Vm console

[vlab2014 · Accepted solution]

I just discovered that the culprit, it is Workstation 10.e.x.p. beta holding the version of Console at 10!

i.e. the vi-client installer is not overwriting any files in c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VMware\VMware Remote Console Plug-in 5.5\ files because the version is has is 9.0 and less than 10.

The problem appears to be that many applications are using the same c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VMware\VMware Remote Console Plug-in 5.5 folder.

And the uninstaller does not uninstall it because it is being shared by Workstation.

If you rename or delete the folder c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VMware\VMware Remote Console Plug-in 5.5\ and then uninstall and reinstall  VMware-viclient-all-6.0.0-3016447.exe it works and installs version 9.

The last client version is therefore Workstaiton 10 e.x.p. beta, and nothing has updated the c:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VMware\VMware Remote Console Plug-in 5.5\ folder since it was installed.

This is an issue if you don't install the vi-client on a clean system, I think that it needs a warning in the install process.

[dvigneau]

Thanks for the tip, it fixed my issue.