Aero disabled after updating VMWare Tools

[flipdoubt]

On Sunday I suspended my Windows 7 VM and updated Fusion to 4.1.2 without issues. This morning I restarted that VM and updated VMWare Tools to 8.8.3. As the VM came up, Windows disabled Aero where it worked fine before. The Personalization dialog shows a "Troubleshoot problems with transparency and other Aero effects" message. The Troubleshooting report shows "Color depth is set too low (Not fixed)" and "Desktop Window Manager is disabled (Fixed)". Display properties show "True Color (32-bit)" is selected, as shown in the attachment. I repaired VMTools and restarted several times, but the problem remains. How can I get Aero back?

The Windows Application log shows three, slightly different instances (Event Ids 260, 280, 272) of the following from the VMUpgradeHelper from when the VM was shutting down after updating tools:

The description for Event ID 280 from source VMUpgradeHelper cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

54:A3:23:DC:0C:14

The Windows System log contains the following for each time I show the trouble shooter:

Fault bucket , type 0

Event Name: ScriptedDiagFailure

Response: Not available

Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:

P1: Microsoft Corporation.AeroDiagnostic.1.0

P2: RC_LowColorDepth/DefaultInstanceId

P3: 1.0.0.0

P4: Default

P5:

P6:

P7:

P8:

P9:

P10:

Attached files:

C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\Temp\msdtadmin\_5544879A-E15F-44EC-A761-D2E80EA1B03C_\Pkg4143.cab

These files may be available here:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue\NonCritical_Microsoft Corpor_1ba0f4c3a574645570f751b17b58b7c37ba8e16_cab_16c142ba

Analysis symbol:

Rechecking for solution: 0

Report Id: f1c4bcdc-8a17-11e1-aa71-005056e27e36

Report Status: 4

I know I probably should have shut down the VM before upgrading Fusion.

[ColoradoMarmot]

Yep, you should always shut down - not suspend a VM before upgrading Fusion.

Manually uninstall the tools from control panel, then reinstall.

[flipdoubt]

Just tried it, but it didn't help. Upon restarting, I find the following in the Application event log: "The Desktop Window Manager was unable to start because WDDM is not in use."

Any other ideas?

[flipdoubt]

I fixed my problem by uninstalling AirDisplay on my VM. I guess something about AirDisplay confused the VMWare Tools updater, because both Aero and AirDisplay worked fine within the VM before I ran the tools updater. Too bad I spent so much time rolling back to a snapshot of the VM, downgrading to 4.1.1, shutting down the VM, updating to 4.1.2, then updating tools, only to find the same result. I guess there is some kind of incompatibility between the VMWare Tools updater and AirDisplay.