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unknownghost
Contributor
Contributor

Workstation pro not working on windows 1903

Hello, can you guys please update VMware workstation to work with the new windows 10 1903 update because when you try to open a VM it just hangs and it doesn't open, sometimes it does but most times it doesn't open at all.

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buffalosolja
Contributor
Contributor

Seems to be working for me also got a new update on 19H1 today and I am currently on 18898.1000.  Thanks Vmware for the attention to your customers!!

lindros2
Contributor
Contributor

so no support for v14, which I bought last year (AFTER windows 10 was released).

This is rubbish.

I'm terminating our VMware and AirWatch relationship. I hope someone with a spine contacts me.

I'm furious.

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spyderz343
Contributor
Contributor

so now that 1903 is released what is the solution to get my vms back up and running on vmworkstation 14? all I see is a black  screen when I try and start my vms

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TomCarlisle
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@spyderz343, You might be experiencing the issue I do on one system. Launching the VM's they come up with a black screen. I found that I can work around it by toggling the VM to not full screen, resize the window, then the graphics will appear and then you can go full screen and have no further issues. This happens even after this update which is supposed to fix issue with windows 1903.

You can avoid the problem by not enabling "hardware 3d acceleration" under display options. The problem for me is, I migrated away from virtualbox to vmware because 3d acceleration is more mature.

To be fair, this only happens on one of my systems. My desktop rig has no problems like this. My laptop does. That laptop happens to have the Intel GPU build in on the CPU and also an Nvidia GPU. I think the issue has to do with that configuration -- although it should work. I have not been able to find a way to get it to work, and yes that includes defining an application profile in Nvidia Control Panel for the VMWare VMX executable and specifying the Nvidia GPU --- nad verifying that is working through task manager.

lindros2
Contributor
Contributor

I found that I can work around it by toggling the VM to not full screen, resize the window, then the graphics will appear and then you can go full screen and have no further issues. This happens even after this update which is supposed to fix issue with windows 1903.

I do the same thing.

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johnnye
Contributor
Contributor

Will there be a patch for Workstation 14 as well? I have the same problem with the Win10 guests (1803 and 1903 builds) on a Win10 host (1903) freezing when shutting down, starting up and copying files by dragging and dropping from host to guest. The 3D graphics acceleration has nothing to do with my problem.

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trboomer
Contributor
Contributor

I got VMWare Workstation pro 15 working on Windows 10 1903 by removing hyper-v. You cannot have hyper-v installed because VMWare uses it's own hypervisor which is not compatible with Hyper-V. Windows 10 version 1903 installs hyper-v to run sand box and containers. These feature create a virtualized environment to prevent malware from being able to corrupt or control the host operating system. So when you uninstall hyper-v, those services will not be able to run. 

I uninstalled Hyper-V. Go into programs and Features, then Turn Windows features on or off. scroll down and clear all the checkboxes under hyper-v. Then I had to reboot. Initially I could not open programs and features. I waited about 5 minutes and rebooted again. Eventually I was able to run programs and features from the control panel. I selected VMWare workstation. and clicked change to repair the installation. It required me to stop VMWare.exe, so I killed it using task manager. Then I chose repair installation. waited for it to finish and rebooted again. After that VMWare workstation pro 15 was up and running.

TomCarlisle
Contributor
Contributor

This is good info, and it is certainly true that -- as of this moment -- you can't have hyper-v running concurrently with vmWare Workstation. For me though, it wasn't a case of having hyper-v installed. Nothing I did brought stability to vmWare VM's or fixed the "black screen" issue I had been working around for so long. To be fair, one of my systems runs vmware workstation 15 fine without any issues. But my other system is a laptop with dual GPU, and has a lot of issues with 3D acceleration -- and that was the main reason I had chosen vmWare over Virtualbox. And yes, I had done all the right things like specify that the vmWare VMX process be forced to the nvidia GPU, etc.

But at the end of the day, I ended up reverting back to virtualbox to get my VMs stable, and with Virtualbox 6 the 3D acceleration is working better than when I passed on vbox in favor of vmWare.

It pains me to say this, because I have been a techie in support of virtualization for as long as vmware has existed, and I have always considered vmWare the master race of virtualization.

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Spoon
Contributor
Contributor

Running Windows 10 Home 1903 Build 18362.175

VMware Workstation 15 Pro 15.1.0 build-13591040

Capture.JPG

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ScottSmithy
Contributor
Contributor

Is there fix forthcoming for Version 14 that addresses the Windows 10 1903 host issue?

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HoderJensen
Contributor
Contributor

I would not expect it, as Workstation Pro 14 had end of life two months ago Smiley Sad

https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/support/product-lifecycle-matrix.p...

Then you can update to v15, which has end of life in under 9 months, meaning you get support for 1903 and 1909. Personally I'm done with Workstation Pro, and switching to Hyper-V, as those support cycles are not good enough.

ScottSmithy
Contributor
Contributor

Moving to Hyper-V...I briefly looked into Microsoft's Hyper-V, though only Gen 1. I suppose I would get Gen 2 capabilities if I updated to 1903, which I cannot at this time because I have VMWare WS installed. Conversion over to Hyper-V doesn't seem that complicated.

What Hyper-V were you contemplating?

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HoderJensen
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Contributor

I'm running a Windows 10 Enterprise 1903 and using the built in Hyper-V.

I need to be able to use NAT and bridge network to VM's, and snapshots, and TPM with Secure Boot, which Hyper-V does fine. I don't see any reason to use money on v15, specially with the mediocre support.

On top of that, I can now enable Windows 10 Sandbox and Windows Defender Application Guard without problems.

ScottSmithy
Contributor
Contributor

Got it, thx.

Is there a GUI similar to the VMWare Workstation Console for Hyper-V? Maybe third-party?

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HoderJensen
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Contributor

Hyper-v Manager, it's part of Hyper-V when installing it. It's pretty straightforward to use. They use some other terms in some cases, but it's pretty self-explanatory.

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mahacker
Contributor
Contributor

After real problems with last major update to Win and VMWare - but time has past on from that, and the lessons I learnt I now applied to 1903 - and all worked well.

I still use VMWorkstation V12 (yeah, I know).

My Win 10 Ent wouldn't let me upgrade to 1903 due to it being installed (Win10 Update Assistant explicitly said so)

So, I de-installed VMWare V12 and was able to upgrade to 1903.

Try to install VMWare Workstation V12 and it fails to completely install - fails at the end of the process, trying to install drivers I think. I cancelled the install after prompted to do so, and it undoes the attempted install. From the lessons learnt last time I go to Control Panel/Programs/Turn Win Features on or off. HyperV was not On. I turn it On deliberately. Reboot. I then go through the same process and turn it Off. For some reason this is needed to ensure it actually does get turned Off.

Install VMWare Workstation 12 again - and it completes the install fine and I can run the same VMs as I did before.

This seems like an easy fix for me - but it did come after much pain and reading from last time.

* Edit. The reboot time of the entire PC increased from pretty instant to about 5 mins after doing all of this. I was prepared to live with that. But I remembered a trick from last time, to disable the vEthernet - Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter (from Network Connections) - that returned the reboot process to almost instantaneous again. Not sure why that network connection is still there - but I seem to remember that helped with my troubleshooting last time - that by disabling it also helped with the whole problem of getting VMs to start up.

zimm0who0net
Contributor
Contributor

Have you been happy with Hyper-V.  I tried it on a sandbox machine and a quick run through I found that drag-and-drop of files between host and VM doesn't work, nor does sound work with Linux hosts.  In fact the Linux client GUI seemed a bit flaky.  Maybe there's a "VMWare Tools" like thing I need to install.  I'm also pretty certain that my OSX virtual machine is likely not going to run right, but that was never really supported by vmware either (I have to patch workstation every time I launch).  It does seem that NAT and bridged hosts work fine and snapshots are there (both of which I use extensively). 

I have to say I'm getting sick of having to plunk down $150 every 12 months not because I need additional functionality but because I just need things to work the way they used to.  It's frustrating.

Anyone tried virtualbox as a replacement?

Jwillwash
Contributor
Contributor

Same here.  Windows "end of Life" can't upgrade because of VMWARE.  I'm using Workstation10.  I haven't ever upgraded to 15 because I only use it as a novelty maybe three or four times a year, but still I paid 200 bucks for it and I'd like to use it.  This particular home system isn't even online so Windows security issues don't really concern me as much.  Anyone think VMWARE will put out a patch to make their software compliant with MS?   Is this just a gambit by MS to push their own VM solutions?  Why is this the only software that's not supported by MS new build?  Looks like it's gonna be end of VMWARE for me.  I can't see putting out $250 for something that I only use a little bit.  VMWARE should allow a special upgrade since we got deprecated out of existence.

VMPeter2020
Contributor
Contributor

I was unable to install Windows 10 update 1903 because of VMWare Workstation 14. Whenever I tried the Windows 10 update process told me that I either have to update (not possible, already the latest v14 update) or remove VMWare Workstation 14. The solution to this problem is very simple and - in my opinion - entirely ridiculous.

  • Do what Windows says and uninstall VMWare Workstation Pro 14.1.7 (leave the check boxes checked so your settings and license info stay saved on the system)
  • Install the Windows update (in case it doesn't work you may have to restart and/or delete Win temp files)
  • After successfully installing Windows update 1903 simply install VMWare Workstation Pro 14.1.7 again
  • Done. You should now have an updated Windows and a working VMWare Workstation 14 installation.

Apparently this doesn't work for everyone. Some people seem to have actual issues with running VMWare after the update. For me it worked without any additional changes.

MKrispin
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Trboomer,

your explanation listen plausible and I tried it out.

I could not find any Hyper-V entry at this place.

How else can I see that this is installed and active?

I had first problems on update to Win1903, but never mention some with vmware.

My vmware didn't run after the failed 1903 update.

After some resaerch I found one who told that after update to W10 1903 his vmware would run. So I checked to update this win version

After contacting MS-Hotline I got Win10 1903 running but not VMWare. So I deinstalled all and bought even the update from vmware 12 to 15

But still nothing works. I'm really angry meanwhile with vmware, that they do not publish to the registered customer that there are problems and how to fix.

It is 1/2 year ago and no help from vmware. Seems to escalate it to the PC-Magazines around the world to push them and getting up their ass.

I payed money for nothing now.

Thank You and Best Regards

Michael