Windows 10 Pro / vmWare License / Windows Update

[vmAspirin]

Recently, back in March 2017, I built a new computer and put Windows 10 Pro as the host OS.

Once I worked out the hardware and software issues of the build, I installed vmWare Workstation Pro 30 day trial.

I installed 3 OS's onto Workstation Pro, Windows 7 Pro, Windows XP Pro SP3 and Ubuntu Mate 16.04 LTS

I configured all the above OS's to suit my needs and used the bridged network mode because of of specific router needs I have in my home network.

Once I was comfortable with the above OS's configurations, I ran them to observe how stable vmWare would be over the duration of the 30 day trial period.

Everything ran stable as I had hoped for the duration of the trial period. Awesome.

However, I did not purchase a license until June 10, 2017, thereby activating vmWare but not using it until Yesterday, Sunday June 18, 2017.

In between the time of the trial period ending and the license activation, Windows 10 Pro updated at least 1 time, possibly 2 times. I would need to check the update logs.

When I finally fired up vmWare yesterday, I was given an error message (I don't recall exactly the pop up window's message) about the mouse/keyboard not being properly connected to the host, so it could possibly lead to delays in typing and/or poor mouse responses.

Another error occurred with the network interface. The host could not connect to the VMs in any case, bridged or NAT, the VMs would not recognize the network interface.

Immediately, I thought something was corrupted with vmWare and did a reinstall/repair of vmWare which solved all of the above problems. I did not install any programs during the interim that could have lead to vmWare's problem.

I did notice that the last Windows 10 update managed to completely stop the daily changing picture for the lock screen. It did change some privacy settings I had as well.

My question is: Is it possible that Windows 10 updates are corrupting programs such as vmWare, or is there some other reason for vmWare to have been corrupted in some way?

[alreadytaken]

Hi,

i believe you're at the wrong place. You should ask in the Microsoft Community about that behavior.
You will not find a satisfying answer here.
It seems that beginning with Windows 10 Microsoft started to force abuse of SoHo Users as Beta-Testers.
So welcome as Beta-Tester at Microsoft. 

greetings

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hello,

VMware workstation depends on quite a few low level programming interfaces so if Microsoft changes something on their end then sometimes VMware has to play catch up and fix what they broke. I don't know if you updated to Creators Update, but that one is a bit notorious for breakage and not just for virtualisation.

Then there's Windows Updates that just break applications on updates, not because of changing the the programming interfaces, but just because.. well some of the settings get lost or Windows trying to fix something or ... well.. it happens and it isn't always completely deterministic.

What you did, uninstall, reboot, reinstall is one of the first troubleshooting steps that will be suggested if a Windows Update breaks things.

Usually things get back to normal after that.

hope this helps,

--

Wil

[vmAspirin]

Hi,

Thank you, it's just as I had suspected. And yes, the Creator update was more or less pushed into updating, I don't "think" it was an optional feature?

I did noticed some subtle changes to how Windows 10 runs in the background. (I use core temp 1.7 to keep an eye out for CPU usage) Now this is not really scientific, but I did notice the CPU temps not having periodic temperature spikes since the Creator update. Before the update, there would be intervals where the temps would flare up while the OS was doing something, what exactly, it never became clear. But it did seem to coincide with HD usage.

After doing a full uninstall/reinstall/repair with vmWare workstation pro, my host system and the VMs are working very well. It's a great feeling when many hours of planning and work come to fruition and work as intended.

[wila]

Hi,

Glad to hear it is running well.

As for "Creators Update" not being optional. If you happen to run Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise then the update can be delayed for quite a bit.

See:

Windows 10 tip: Temporarily delay the Creators Update | ZDNet

I happen to do so on my production machines, on the test boxes I don't mind so much

--

Wil