Annoying issues with VMware Workstation 12.5

[darkman088]

Dear VMware experts,

I was recently forced to switch to Windows 10 (Enterprise), 64-bit. I used that opportunity to also switch to the latest

VMware Workstation 12.5.

I immediately experienced very annoying problems. When I try to start a VM, it says, that it can't access the VM and

after a short googling, I found the solution - that it's necessary to restart the 'VMware Authorization Service'.

Nevertheless this worked, I find it particularly annoying, that this is just a workaround, that needs to be applied EVERY

TIME I need to launch a VM and this is NOT OK - it costs me precious time and it's pretty much distracting my thoughts.

Please kindly let me know, if there is a solution to this problem, or I shall revert back to version 11, which was working

flawlessly (at least under Windows 7).

Many many thanks for your help in advance!

[gimmely]

Did you investigate "VMware Authorization Service", e.g. what Event Log may show or under which account it's run?  You didn't provide much information, so people can only guess or ask question(s) (back to you).

[darkman088]

Nope, I didn't check Event Log. I'm not used to playing with VMware itself, I work with the VMs that are running on it.
The service is running under a Local System account.

I was rather hoping that it's a common problem and that it'll immediately ring a bell...

[gimmely]

Some people have indeed reported issues with this service and you should be able to find posts in this community.  However, it's hard to say you're having the same issue as the others or it's a common issue for all.

In my memory, it's mostly about how Workstation was upgraded, which is by itself a general statement without any specifics.  The "solution" - or, work-around - is to uninstall Workstation, clean up file system and registry, reboot the host and install the latest version of Workstation from scratch.

You certainly can try to "in-place repair" Workstation's installation, but it might not help resolve the issue.  Again, it'd go back to how your previous Workstation was installed and so on.

[darkman088]

Thanks for paying attention to my problem, but it's a different thing.

It's a brand new installation on a brand new OS. So it has nothing to do with an upgrade.

I'll make another quick search and if nothing, I'll simply revert back to version 11, which

was working very stable, at least on Windows 7. Thank you!

[darkman088]

So ??? No further suggestions ??? No fix ? No tricks ?

Hmmm...

[gimmely]

Not to pick on you, but you said in an earlier post that

I'll make another quick search and if nothing, I'll simply revert back to version 11

So, at least I thought you were content with knowing what you'd do next and move on.

If you want to continue with 12.5, my (first) suggestion remains the same, which is to check Event Log.  Other considerations are, as you can find in other threads in this community:

1. check your anti-virus application;

2. uninstall Workstation and clean up file system and registry, before (re-)installing the latest version (again).

Of course, there're many other "environmental" factors which we have no idea about and may break or make it, e.g.

1. are both old and new machines on the same domain?

2. do the same GPOs, if there's a domain, get applied on the same machines?

3. are you using the same user account on both machines?

As you can see, these "environmental" factors are not VMware-specific, but rather common to any application.  So, my point is it's hard to say if your issue is with VMware, which remains a speculation because we don't have much information in your issue.

[darkman088]

Hm... OK, I've got bad news 😞 I felt a little bit ashame, that as an IT guy I was too lazy to check the Event viewer...

So I did this now. I didn't find nothing. In the Application log - nothing. In the System log - just a few messages, that

the VMware authorization service has stopped unexpectedly. I guess, those are the times when I was restarting it.

Nothing more 😞

So, I went on and uninstalled version 12.5 and then I have installed version 11.0. I opened and started the VM which

I need and... AGAIN it said, that the VMware authorization service is not running !!!! SO, again in services, I have

restarted it and then the VM booted up successfully.

At least, a small improvement is, that when stopping that nasty service, with v. 11.0 it doesn't prompt me that it needs

to also stop another VMware service (I think VMware server) and restarting the service was a bit smaller pain in the...

mmm... ear 🙂

Soooo, first of all, I need to apologize - it's not a VMware bug, I guess this one goes entirely to Microsoft's garden !!!

And then... Any ideas if this could be fixed ? What else would you advise me to check ?

Many thanks in advance!

P. S.: I can see a difference with Windows 7 - now I no longer need to start VMware Workstation as an Administrator.

[darkman088]

OK, so I am the only one in the world that has this problem and noone on this planet is able to help.

Good to know !!