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dsesdg
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Workstation 16.1.2 Pro, under Windows 11 host, Windows guest in VM crashes on startup

This Reddit post sums up this issue well:  https://www.reddit.com/r/vmware/comments/ph590g/vm_does_not_start_on_workstation_1612_pro_windows/

Basically using Workstation Pro 16.1.2 on a Windows 11 host, if you create a Windows guest VM, and the host system has Hyper-V enabled in any form (in my case its present because I have WSL2 enabled in the host), and if you have more than one processor and/or one core per processor selected for the guest, the Windows guest VM crashes at boot:

VMware Workstation unrecoverable error: (vcpu-0)

Exception 0xc0000005 (access violation) has occurred.

A log file is available in "C:\Users\test\Documents\Virtual Machines\Windows 10 x64\vmware.log".

You can request support.

To collect data to submit to VMware support, choose "Collect Support Data" from the Help menu.

You can also run the "vm-support" script in the Workstation folder directly.

We will respond on the basis of your support entitlement.

In my case, I'm running this all on the released Windows 11 using an AMD Ryzen 5950x.  This same host configuration works without issue under Windows 10 (multiple processors, multiple threads per processor, etc.)  Also, if I disable and remove all instances of WSL2/Hyper-V on the Windows 11 host, then everything works fine in the guest with multiple threads enabled.

A similar issue appears to have been reported here back three months ago as well:  https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/VMWARE-16-1-2-on-Windows-11-host/m-p/285495...

It may be interesting to note that I also have several Linux guests running in the same host, and they work without issue (one processor, 32 threads per processor).  So this appears to be related only to Windows guest operation in this host configuration.  It doesn't matter if the guest installation is Windows 10 or Windows 11, the crash is the same.  

It'd be great to learn if VMware is working on this issue for an update soon...it's unfortunate that I can only run Windows guests using one core + one thread, on a 32 thread machine...

Thank you!

127 Replies
ledonet
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Same issue also on my I9-12900K PC with Windows 11. I need WSL2 enabled, so no more VMware wks working (except Ubuntu vm). 

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warrendodge
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Having the same issue with Windows 11 Pro guest and Fedora 35 guest (exception/crash during shutdown) with

VMware Workstation 16.2.1 build 18811642

host: Windows 11 Pro,  21H2,  22000.376, experience 1000.22000.376.0

11th gen Intel Core i7-11800H

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Modge
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Is it possible for one of you to open ticket to vmware support because they dont care about this forum ...
And btw there is a fix when you disable feature of windows, oracle had the same issue they found a fix without disabling the feature ...
But vmware doesnt care

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CWmorin
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Hello,

 

I opened a case for this issue. I will post an update when available. 🙂

Staytuned,

Charles

warrendodge
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Looks like VMware is aware of the issue. It would be nice if they would communicate in the forums, too. But at least they are working on it.

Response I got for a support ticket opened this week for this issue:

Please be informed that the issue has already been reported to the engineering Team and they are working on the fix.

As a workaround, please follow the below steps on the host:

1. Disable Hyper-V by opening an Administrator command prompt, and using this command:
    bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

2. After issuing this command, then reboot the system.

3. Once the Host OS is Rebooted,
A. Open Windows Security > Device Security > Core Isolation
B. Turn OFF Memory Integrity

Once the changes are made, reboot the machine and try to run the VM and check the behavior.

Using a single core for the VM is a better workaround in my case, so I haven't tried this. 

redsolja
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The best workaround for me is to revert to Windows 10 until it's fixed, so I both have docker/wsl2/hyper-v and VMware.

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amowat
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WSL 2.0 needs Hyper-V enabled, but not installed. So disabling Hyper-V could also take out the Linux Subsystem. edit: I did switch to a single core and the VM would boot, but it eventually crashed anyway.

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Mikero
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Thanks for everyone's patience on this issue.

We have identified the root cause and will be issuing an update to Workstation to address it. Will go out next week at the latest.

Breakdown:

During power-on when using Windows User Level Monitor (i.e. when Hyper-V is enabled on the Host in some shape or form), we set the Windows Hypervisor Platform processor features based on what features we actually want to expose to the guest.
This is done by iterating through a known list of WHP features and querying guest CPUID to determine if that feature is exposed to the VM.

Unfortunately, this didn't account for unknown WHP features. If Workstation (in ULM mode) is running on a version of Windows that supports processor features our software is not aware of, those features are not properly cleared, and the result can be an exception/crash like the one described in this thread.

 

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Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
dsesdg
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@Mikero Michael, many thanks for the update - it will be great seeing this finally addressed!  😀👍

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BrianBuresh
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This doesn't account for machines that do not have hyper-v installed, like mine. Even though Workstation seems to think they it is installed, it isn't. 

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amowat
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@BrianBuresh It's not the hyper-V software, it's the Hyper-V service. It's built into Windows by default.

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CWmorin
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Which version of Windows do you have? Most newer versions 10/11 have Hyper-V installed by default as a feature.HyperV, Virtual Machine Platform, Windows Hypervisor Platform, Windows Subsystem For Linux and Windows Sandbox. Here is a nice write up on each...SOLVED: HyperV vs Virtual Machine Platform vs Windows Hypervisor Platform vs Windows Subsystem For L...

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BrianBuresh
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I don't have any of the features in the article listed installed. I specifically removed those features while troubleshooting this issue, and the problem persists. (Granted, I removed by unticking the box, if it is more involved than that, then I haven't gone that far). I am on Windows 11 21H2 22000.376 with Workstation 16.2.1 build 18811642. 

 

 

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redsolja
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can we please mark the thread as solved when the update is indeed released and the issue is indeed solved?

t-navy
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Your problem persists because you didn't disable the Windows Hypervisor. You can do that with the set bcd command mentioned many times above. Windows 11, by default, doesn't run bare metal; it runs on top of a hypervisor for its Virtualization-Based security features.

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erleed
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Microsoft has sprinkled Hyper-v tech all over Windows 10 and 11 as a security basis.  You may have hyper-v enabled and running and not even realize it.

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erleed
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@t-navy the community manager said that they are working on an update and will be released sometime next week.

It's not a solution to turn hyper-v off if we want to maintain the security features of Windows thatuse hyper-v and run vmware.  After the update mentioned above we should be able to run both.

Note that Hyper-v service can get enabled even if you don't have the Hypervisor (Hyper-v) enabled... So we need this update.

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mrhtan1
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Can we expect a release this week?

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Secret_Sqrl
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It's "next week" and no update. Can we get a status please

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Mikero
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We released 16.2.2 for Windows at 8am (Pacific) today, literally the first thing we did after getting back from the long weekend 😃

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workstation-Pro/16.2.2/rn/VMware-Workstation-1622-Pro-Release-Note... 

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Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF