Unable to Install Visual Studio 2015 Professional in Guest under VMware Workstation 11

[kellerpj]

I posted this in MS forums and I'm also asking here in case anyone else has encountered this issue.

When running the installation from an ISO mounted using Daemon Tools, the installation program (E:\vs_professional.exe) shows the splash window, then exits with no other dialogs or messages.  The "log" file produced has the following "suspicious" entries:

...

[0394:0A50][2015-10-24T20:15:53]i000: Setting numeric variable 'UpdateInModify' to value 0
[0394:0A50][2015-10-24T20:15:53]e000: MUX:  ERROR: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.
[0394:0A50][2015-10-24T20:15:53]e000: MUX:  Stack:    at Microsoft.Devdiv.Bootstrapper.Utility.Hypervisor.Initialize()
    at Microsoft.Devdiv.Bootstrapper.Utility.Hypervisor.get_Supported()
    at Microsoft.Devdiv.Bootstrapper.StateInformation.Initialize(ICommand command, CommandLineArgumentsStore commandlineArguments, Boolean isWebBundle)
    at Microsoft.Devdiv.Bootstrapper.Model.Initialize()
    at Microsoft.Devdiv.Bootstrapper.ManagedUx.Initialize()
    at Microsoft.Devdiv.Bootstrapper.ManagedUx.InternalRun()
[0394:0A50][2015-10-24T20:15:53]i000: MUX:  Exit with 0x643 (Failed)
[0394:0CF0][2015-10-24T20:15:53]i500: Shutting down, exit code: 0x643
[0394:0CF0][2015-10-24T20:15:53]i410: Variable: BundleProgressKey = Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\14.0\Setup\vs\professional
[0394:0CF0][2015-10-24T20:15:53]i410: Variable: CurrentOperation = Install

...

This seems to indicate that, when the bootstrap program is attempting to see if it's running on a supported hypervisor, it gets an error.

Has anyone else experienced this?  Does anyone have a workaround for this?

Incidentally, the guest OS where the installation is being done is Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 64bit.  It has been updated with all the most recent Windows Updates to date.  Also, I'm initiating the installation under the local administrator account context.

Additionally, the ISO can be mounted and does successfully install on a physical Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 64bit system.  So, it appears to be an issue with the code that is checking to see if the installation is being executed on a virtual machine.  Specifically, in my case, a VMware Workstation guest virtual machine.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[louyo]

I don't use Daemon Tools but I have installed VS 2015 on W7 64 bit by setting the CD/DVD drive to the iso file. Doubt that VS restricts to non-virtual machines. Sorry if this is not much help.

Lou

[kellerpj]

Lou:

I'm interested in knowing if you successfully installed Visual Studio 2015 Professional in a Windows 7 Enterprise, 64bit guest under VMware Workstation.

I haven't been able to do that.  The same ISO does install on a physical machine running Windows 7 Enterprise, 64bit.

Thanks,

Paul

[louyo]

Not the Enterprise version, W7 Professional, 64 Bit. I downloaded the ISO from Microsoft. I am running WS 11..1.2 on  a Linux host.

Did you try an ISO directly from a download?

(I also installed on a W10 VM)

Lou

[kellerpj]

Lou:

Thanks for trying to help.

The ISO was downloaded directly from MS MSDN site.  The SHA1 hash of what I downloaded matches the SHA1 for the ISO on their website.  So I'm sure it's the same ISO and does not contain any "bad" data.

Paul

[admin]

You could try hiding the hypervisor's presence.  With the VM shut down, add the following configuration option to the .vmx file:

hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = FALSE

[kellerpj]

Thanks for taking the time to try to help.

I added hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = "FALSE" to the VMX file.  Still the same issue.

Anyone else with an idea?

Thanks,

Paul