VMWare tools appears to install, but will not run

[swarf_rat]

OSX 10.11.6, Fusion 10.1.0, guest system is Windows XPSp3. This VM had been working in the past. After one of the Fusion updates, the VMWare tools quite working: no icon in lower right, things that depend on the tools (networking, drag and drop, etc) stopped working. When I manually install the tools, it offers only Modify and Repair. Repair appears to do nothing, (installer starts then finishes immediately). Modify appears to do a normal install script, copying files, finishing, etc. It does not ask for a restart, however even if restarted, nothing has changed: still no icon, still not working. I then tried uninstalling the Tools, restarting now gave me the VGA screen and no tools working. Installing fresh, now I am offered the "Typical" install, but the same thing happens: appears to run the install script to completion but nothing changes. In addition, normally once the tools are installed, the menu choice changes to "Reinstall VMWare Tools". This never happens, it remains "Install VMWare Tools". Looking in the VMWare directory on the VM, everything appears to be there. Installing from the virtual CD behaves the same.

I have another guest VM, also Windows XPSp3 which works fine on the same machine. This VM was copied from it several years ago, but they may not be in the same condition now.

Any suggestions?

[admin]

see below Link. it will help to resolve the issue.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tools/10.1.0/vmware-tools-user-guide.pdf

Manually Installing VMware Tools on a Windows Virtual Machine

Guest operating system Windows 2000 and earlier, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and

later support VMware Tools.

Page Number-21

Regards,

Randhir

[wila]

Hi,

Not quite sure as I haven't ran Windows XP in a while, but it seems that VMware Tools install for older guest OS's is broken.

FWIW, repair installs have never worked for me on non of the guest OS's.

I would try to uninstall - then reboot the guest OS, after which I would snapshot the VM, then try a plain install - which probably won't work, but if it does then you're golden.

If it does not, roll back the snapshot and do a custom install and skip parts that might be a problem. Main suspect is the printing integration part.

--

Wil

[swarf_rat]

Please read the opening post carefully. Your link simply explains how to do the normal install. I have done that perhaps hundreds of times in the past 10 years. I've also done it perhaps 15 times on this particular VM after seeing this particular problem, with the results I reported in the OP. The tools appear to install normally. But they do not run. I have searched the knowledge base, the documentation, and this forum and can find no solution to this problem.

[swarf_rat]

Again, please read the opening  post. I have uninstalled the tools, rebooted, reinstalled the tools, rebooted with the same result. There are no errors reported by the install script. The files appear to get installed. They just do not run. The install script appears to recognize that the tools are installed, as it offers only Modify and Repair. However VMFusion appears to recognize that they are not installed, as the menu does not change from "Install VMWare Tools" to "Reinstall VMWare Tools".