Cannot use host printer on w2k guest

[Dieter2020]

Circumstances: VMware WS 15.5.1 Pro, host “Win10  Pro 64 bit Ver1909”, guest “Win2000 SP4”, VMware Tools Ver. 10.0.12 build 4448491 successfully installed on guest, new hp printer connected with ethernet cable to network, printer driver only available for win10 on host.

Problem: Cannot use host hp printer on Win2000 guest. First I activated checkbox “Enable virtual printers” via “Edit/Preferences/Devices”. Guest setting is “Printer present” with device status “Connect at power on”. After starting Win2000 guest I actually do not know how to install the “VMware Virtual Printer Application” which seems not to be a part of VMware tools. Do I have to download the “VMware Virtual Printer Application” or should it be part of the “VM”-menu after starting the guest? The corresponding section in user manual WS15 is confusing and anyway turns in a circle. Is there quite by chance a plain and easy description available?

[wila]

Hi,

For Windows 2000 the VMware Tools software is no longer maintained.

The legacy vmware tools for Windows 2000 does indeed carry the Thinprint drivers.

So you would end up having to install the legacy version (version 10.x), which is bundled with your Workstation 15.x, but the problem with that version is that Thinprint does not work (sigh).

To work around that you have to download an older version of VMware Tools and use the  thinprint driver from that.

See also this thread for more info:

Where to find VMware Virtual Printer application

--

Wil

[Dieter2020]

Hi Wila,

thank you for your interesting notes and the corresponding link. As far as I got it correctly there is a little hope that under "VMware Workstation 15.5 Pro" the technology of using host printers might work provided the right older version of VMware Tools are installed on a Win 2000 guest system. Nevertheless I found notes that the constellation of "VMware Worksation 15" and "VMware Tools 9.6.5" works well as far as using host printers is concerned. To reach the goal, an old horse (that´s me) has to overcome further hurdles:

a) How can I download the file "windows-Tools9.6.5.iso" as appropriate version of VMware Tools?

The following suggested links in the posting do not work:

- http://ftpsite.vmware.com/download/​

- ftp://ftpsite.vmware.com

- https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/ws/10.0.7/2844087/windows/packages/tools-winPre2k-...

b) How to install the VMware Tools manually based on the corresponding iso file?

As far as I got it correctly I have to avoid going through the menu (VM/Install VMware Tools), otherwise I will get the version 10.0.12, which does not work.

It seems to be a very long way to Tipperary 🙂

Best regards,

Dieter

[wila]

Hi Dieter,

Oh dear.

VMware has removed the older downloads from workstation before version 12...

<sarcasm> that must have saved them a lot of bandwidth / storage </sarcasm>

They did leave an older version from Workstation 7 though.

https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/ws/7.0.1/227600/windows/tools-winPre2k-8.1.4.exe.t...

Perhaps you can try that instead?

I will see if I can locate something more recent on one of their servers anywhere else, but this is/was the official spot.

--

Wil

[Dieter2020]

Hi Wil,

thank you very much for your support. It´s a pity that getting VMware Tools 9.6.4 is far from easy. I really hope that you can find it. Apart from that I got the file of VMware Tools 8.1.4. After extracting I got the filename "tools-winPre2k-8.1.4.exe".

Would it be installed in the following way?:

- power on the Win 2000 guest

- uninstall VWmare Tools 10.0.12 with ordinary Windows 2000 method

- transfer the file "tools-winPre2k-8.1.4.exe" to the virtual harddisk of Windows 2000 guest

- install VMware Tools 8.1.4 under Windows 2000 guest via double click on the exe-file

I would postpone the installation a little. May be I am lucky and you find the newer 9.6.4 version.

Best regards,

Dieter

[wila]

Dieter,

I have not been able to locate it, not at VMware's site, not at my network.

It's part of the latest VMware Workstation 10 (Download 10.0.6) or VMware Player (6.0.7), but ... you would need to download those, install them _and then_ extract that particular .iso file.

FWIW, you could do that in a VM, it's a bit of a long way to get there though.

In regards to the tools-winPre2k-8.1.4.exe.

No you don't copy that into the VM. The .exe will unpack an iso file (the WinPre2k.iso ). I think you can unpack directly using 7zip without running the .exe.

Otherwise you might have to go locate the .iso it extracts (IIRC it is under C:\Program Files\VMware\ ..."

You then point your Windows 2000 virtual cdrom to the .iso file, connect it and from within the VM you then run the setup installer for vmware tools.

--

Wil

[Dieter2020]

Hi Wil,

thank you for your efforts.

Unfortunately it did not work. First I installed VMware Workstation 10.0.6 and at the end I got the required file "winPre2k.iso", which is assumed to embody the VMware Tools 9.6.4 for Win2000 guest systems. Then I uninstalled VMware Tools 10.0.12 in the corresponding VM with ordinary Windows method. After rebooting the Win2000 VM, I mounted the iso-file to cdrom and got the following installation error:

Setup cannot continue. This program requires that Win95, Win98, WinME or WinNT (with SP6 or higher) is installed in this VM.

It´s a pity. Nevertheless we found out at the end, that using host printers in a Win2000 VM under VMware Workstation 15.5 Pro does not work.

Apart from that I also got the impression that older Windows systems like Win2000 or WinXP are no longer fully supported. For example:

Imagine that I established folder shares with ordinary windows method in a Win10 host (64bit) and in VMs with Win2000 and WinXP. Setting of network adapter is "Bridged" and all machines (host and VMs) have different fixed ip addresses. After starting Windows Explorer in any machine, the network environment folder shows only the machine in the workgroup from which the Windows Explorer was started. Folder sharings of the other machines are not shown. This behavior happens under VMware Workstation 15.5 Pro. With VMware Workstation 7.1.6 everything worked perfectly and all machines in the network environment including folder sharings were shown. The advantage was that the internal VMware "Shared Folders" feature is not required.

Best regards,

Dieter

[wila]

Hi,

My apologies, already found the naming of the iso file off...

An iso with the filename "PreWin2k.iso" suggests that by name that it is for installing vmware tools on operating systems "pre" W2k aka before Windows 2000.

There's also a WinPreVista.iso .....

So it seems I reported on the wrong .iso file to use and wasn't corrected by the people who got it to work.

Yikes.

Wondered about it yesterday when I was searching, but figured it was OK as nobody had complained about that part.

Your reported error however is pretty clear that it is the wrong .iso file.

I really wish that VMware didn't leave those legacy OS's with broken vmware tools installers.

The older vmware-tools installers are actually better than the last legacy ones they tagged as frozen.

Removing the working versions of VMware tools from the download site makes it even worse.

Perhaps Mikero​ can look into this as it makes no sense to me to ship broken installers.

--

Wil

[Dieter2020]

Hi Wil,

don't worry. I appreciate your efforts very much. The old horse will put on a helmet and tries to jump over the next hurdle. I will tell you about the results.

Best Regards,

Dieter

[Dieter2020]

Hi Wil,

here I am back again. I noticed that with installation of VMware WS 10.0.6 only two windows related iso files are established:

1. winPre2k.iso (wrong for Win2000 guest)

2. windows.iso (apparently suitable for guests like Win2000 or higher)

Ps: The file "winPreVista.iso" does not exist.

I tried the file "windows.iso" and noticed that using host printers in a Win2000 guest is now possible. By the way the version of VMware Tools is 9.6.4 and so you were right. However, my joy did not last long, because my Win2000 guest is completely blind as far as network environment is concerned. Folder sharings from other machines in the workgroup are not indicated. Vice verse the other machines do not notice the Win2000 guest in the network environment.

May be I have to get used to the fact that older Windows Systems are no longer completely supported under VMware Workstation 15.5 Pro.

Best regards,

Dieter

[grindelwald]

Had the same problem on VMWare Player 15. After upgrading the player from a previous version, the Win2k could not make use of host printers any more (VMWare tools had been upgraded to the current version). Could not find the mentioned VMware Tools 9.6.4. But from a Workstation 6.5.2 i took the windows.iso (VMWare Tools 7.8.4). Removed the existing VMWare Tools from player, rebooted and installed the version 7.8.4. After reboot i could use TP Service and print on host printers again. What a pity these services have been removed from the current tools...