VMWare un-install problems (windows)

[iss42]

Hi

I had installed VMWare Workstation to try it out and now want to uninstall it.  This should be a straight forward process but it isnt and now I am stuck with a half uninstalled application which I cannot re-install / repair / uninstall or upgrade.

It is absolutely infuriating.

I was considering buying Workstation for a server of mine but now I am extremely annoyed and worried that I would never be able to get it off any machine I installed it on should I need to - or indeed to upgrade it.

My setup, Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

Where I am now, I have downloaded the latest version of Workstation and Player, on install attempts both these require uninstall of the earlier Workstation version which then fails with the attached error.

Error message is titled "uninstall" and the message is "Unable to find the file bootstrap.lua in the installation package, this could be due to package corruption. Verify that the package has been downloaded correctly."

I have in the past been very excited about VMWare and the good things they do but this situation is just ridiculouse.

Can anyone can assist please?

Thanks

Ivan

[hawkeye3_1]

Hello there,

I have the same problem - have installed the VMware player 4 but then I wanted it out, and the workstation 8 installed together

only it said that couldn't be done and I should uninstall the player first, which I did, but it got stuck in the middle of the process -

I'm adding screen captures, running a windows 7 Ultimate SP1, adding more info on another png.

Now when I try to uninstall/re-install or doing anything else with the player - it runs what you can see in the first png for about 20 mintues,

then shows the installing window for the player and a few seconds later it enters a "Not responding" state.

this is very important for me to solve quickly, so please would anyone help me ?

(usually I would search for myself for the solution, but I'm very short on time...)

thanks guys

[WoodyZ]

hawkeye3_1 wrote:

this is very important for me to solve quickly, so please would anyone help me ?

(usually I would search for myself for the solution, but I'm very short on time...)

That's no excuse for not searching!   Took 5 seconds to find this in the VMware KB.

Have a look at: Cleaning up after an incomplete deinstallation on a Windows host

[mfelker]

Please keep in mind that the Windows registry MUST be backed up before you start these fairly  advanced edits of the registry  (at least for a simple user like me!).  Otherwise you may do considerable damage to the rest of your system or even make it unbootable. If I overlooked this caution and it was mentioned i guess I'm just to p--ed at this ungoing problem that VMware has with uninstalling (or installing  for that matter) its product and so I was cross-eyed.

[WoodyZ]

It never hurts to make sure one has a valid backup to fall back to however unless one changed the OS Defaults then there is no need to first backup the Windows Registry in Windows XP, Vista or 7 as the Windows Registry is automatically backed up on an ongoing basis and can be restored using System Restore even if having to boot from the Install Disc.  Since both iss42 and hawkeye3_1 are using Windows 7 it is very easy to boot from the Install Disc and run System Restore if they muck up the Windows Registry.

[mfelker]

Some programs automatically make a restore point before changes to their configuration are made. I  don't know whether or not VMware does  this - maybe somebody could point to the documentation on this issue.  Also I'm not sure Windows will do this automatically (restore point when installing or uninstalling VMwrare) - I haven't checked.  Regardless,  if you do have to use system restore (lets hope you don't!) that would still leave the problems with the VMware registry hacks where they were in in the first  place so the problem would continue.   I may be mistaken (because I've always bought licensed Windows OS from the standalone iso) but I seem to remember that some pre-installed versions of Windows on OEM machines (HP Dell? ) do not have Windows restore disks available.  For myself the question is moot since I make an entire  image of a working system most  nights.  I'm using Windows 8 (this is an experimentgal machine as I've said many times - I do have a stable production machine however) I image  Linux as well which on occasiona comes in handly for VMwre problems if they develop).  I just may be plain lucky these problems haven't occurred for me or if they did were not unsurmountable without using registry hacks. I rarely use  but the simplest hacks anyway (like turning  cd autorun off and on).

This still doesn't address the very large number of threads on installing or unistalling VMware.  Upgrades of these products have also been reported as problematic. Again doesn't  effect me since I've purchased upgrade VMware licneses from the beginning  and can also downgrade to an earlier version.  Unleess your company forbids this (or has a copany  support plan with VMware) you might try the Technical Preview which is free untill Oct 15 and will become the next RTM version anyway.

As always -  your mileage may vary.

[hawkeye3_1]

thanks, will look into that