Successfully installed Fusion, but VMWare Tools won't instal. PLEASE HELP!

[mmueck]

I've just transferred my company laptop running XP into my MacBook Pro using the external USB hard drive method. It all went smoothly, and I can successfully log in etc. However, VMWare alerts me that I need to instal VMWare Tools and when I select that operation from the Virtual Machine menu, I see the hour glass briefly come up in the virtual machine, but then ... nothing. I've left it for an hour, still nothing. I've rebooted the virtual machine, quit VMWare Fusion etc. Nothing I do seems to work. I'm running OS X 10.5.6 and VMWare Fusion 2.01- any ideas?? The only thing I did that may be a tad non-standard was storing the virtual machine in "_{/Library/Application Support/Virtual Machines" instead of "}/Documents/Virtual Machines", however I've had other virtual machines running from that location before so I don't think that's an issue.

[WoodyZ]

Did you try running setup.exe from the CD/DVD in Windows Explorer?

[mmueck]

Thank you very much for responding. I only have the downloaded version of VMWare Fusion and on that image there is just a generic installer and uninstaller. Since posting, I've tried restarting my machine, uninstalling and re-installing Fusion, trashing preference files and regenerating them - still no luck. I rummaged around inthe virtual machine and found:

C:\Program Files\VMWare\VMWare Converter\vmware-tools\upgrader.exe

Is that something I should try?

[RDPetruska]

All the menu "VM-->Install VMware Tools" does is mount an ISO image of the VMware Tools installers to the guest's CD-ROM drive. Some guests do not have autorun, and require YOU to manually run the setup and configuration of the Tools package. Inside your guest, open the CD-ROM drive (most likely drive D:) and run Setup.exe.

[WoodyZ]

When you select Install VMware Tools from the Virtual machine menu it inserts an ISO Image in the CD/DVD and if VMware Tools does not automatically start the install then go to the CD/DVD drive in Windows Explorer and run the setup.exe!

[mmueck]

But I don't have a physical CD/DVD - my purchase of this product was a download.

I further rummaged around on my Mac and I see:

/Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion/isoimages/windows.iso. Should I try to somehow copy this into the virtual machine run the setup.exe it contains from there? Can I even do this without VMWare Tools installed?

[RDPetruska]

You do NOT need to manually do this. That is what the menu does for you.

[WoodyZ]

Just click Install VMware Tools from the Virtual Machine and then run the setup.exe from Windows Explorer CD/DCD!!!

How many times do you have to be told?!!!

[mmueck]

OK - so I have it working now, and thank you very much for your help. Every time you said I needed to run something from the Windows Explorer CD/DVD I thought you meant that I had a PHYSICAL CD/DVD and I'd run setup.exe on it via Windows Explorer (as usual). I guess I needed it spelled out that selecting Virtual Machine -> VMWare Tools would populate Windows Explorer with a VIRTUAL CD/DVD. Sorry.

[WoodyZ]

Did I ever tell you to insert a physical CD? NO!

However how hard it it to just go look in Windows Explorer when you're being told ...Windows Explorer... Anyway...

In all reality this really is VMware's fault by not stating in the Help file that if the VMware Tools doesn't automatically install after selecting Install VMware Tools from the Virtual Machine menu to go into Windows Explorer and run the setup.exe from the CD/DCD.

You'd think they would take a hint from the number of times this question/situation occurs that a note in the Fusion Help File might just help but then I guess since so many people don't bother reading the Help File why bother right.