installing workstation 11 is failing

[zach1008]

I have been trying to workstation 11 installed today and am not getting anywhere.  I have tried all the information that I could find.  I have cleared all %temp% files and also tried using /clean option in the executable.  I am a local admin on my laptop, tried running as administrator and also tried running as a domain admin.  None work.  All generate the same error.  Any other suggestions?  One thing that I didn't realize the first time I ran the installer was I had VMware Player installed.  It prompted me to remove it and said it did so successfully.  This is on Windows 8.1 as well.  Any suggestions/help is greatly appreciated.

[dariusd]

It looks like you have some anti-malware package installed on your host machine which is interfering with the VMware Workstation installer.  If so, you'll need to disable that program's registry protection (or startup entry protection) in order to allow the Workstation installer to do its work.

Cheers,

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Darius

[zach1008]

Thanks for the suggestion.  I have checked and the only thing installed on here is the Forticlient which provides AV and VPN.  I can run any other installer that I have tried since getting the machine setup and not had any issue including Office 2013 which modifies the registry.  I can run the install of VMware Player again without issue but I really would prefer to work with Workstation.

[dariusd]

The only other possibility I can think of is a corrupt registry.

I don't often work with Windows nowadays, but I can fondly remember that particular registry key (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run) as one of the ones which is central to the operation of lots of malware (back in the day, at least), and lots of anti-malware products (and quite possibly your Forticlient AV) and endpoint protection products would block writes to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run as a way of preventing malware from persistently infecting the system.

Workstation needs to install a registry key there so that the VMware Workstation tray icon is loaded when you log in.  It's quite possible that your other installers either don't install to that particular registry location or that your anti-malware product has a whitelist to allow those other products to install.

It's very normal for installers to write stuff there, and very abnormal for it to fail – other than in the presence of an overly-strict anti-malware product or security policy, or a corrupt registry.

If it's possible to disable Forticlient while the installation runs, it would certainly seem to be worth trying.

Thanks,

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Darius