Yes, you read the subject right!
The vm was Windows 8.1 Pro and now is 8.1 Enterprise 64 bit.
In either instance when vmware tools is installed an education program called Mad Minutes works as expected. The moment vmware tools is uninatalled the program fails to run properly, and the system doesn't have to be rebooted to see the effects.
Mad Minutes looks like it is built against some sort of Netscape/Mozilla platform.
What happens is interface doesn't display data from what ever database is being used and certain elements of the interface are inactive.
The same actually applies to actual computers. As part of troubleshooting why the progam runs on Windows 8 Tablet Edition and not 8.1 (I have yet to try on an actual win 8 vm) I thought to create a vm so I could quickly change OS.
The VMs did not have updates applied to them, but updates did not make a difference.
As far as VMtools goes, I uninstalled individual components and the software continued to run. To remove items from the tools install I would run the installer and choose modify then select the option to not use. If the modification required a reboot then I would do so, the applicaton would still run.
I even got as far as having every option set to do not use. And I mean every item even tools itself, Mad Minutes still ran. It was not until I go to Add/Remove programs to uninstall VMtools, the program stopped working as expected.
When I contacted the Mad Minute folks they said it has been an issue that also randomly does it on Windows 7.
As you can see this is quite a puzzle indeed, so I am reaching out to see if the community might be able to figure this out.
Message was edited by: VMmouse
