VMware tools not installing; not showing up in "DVD Drive" on host OS's

[Gunzar]

Hi everyone,

I just started getting into virtual machines and got Workstation 11. Every time I install an OS (I've tried Ubuntu 14.04, Windows 7 x64 (Ultimate and Pro), Windows 8 (Pro), and Windows 10 Developer Preview, and all of these on two separate machines) the VMware tools installation doesn't work. I go to the VM menu, hit "Install VMware Tools" and then it says to check my DVD drive to install it. I've done it before and I know how it should work, but I've attempted this multiple times. I've reinstalled the OS's, resized different things on the VMs, changed every setting I could think to change, and no matter what I can't see the VMware tools installer. The DVD drive in Explorer or File Manager for Ubuntu just shows up blank and says there's nothing mounted.

Anyone have any ideas? Is there somewhere I can download executables for the latest VMware tools so that I can install them manually? I can't even get them to show up.

My two PC specs:

1st:

     4.2GHz AMD FX-4170 quad core processor

     8GB of DDR3 1600MHz RAM

     NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650ti graphics card

     1TB Samsung EVO 850 SSD

2nd:

     3.3GHz AMD Phenom II x6 1100T six-core processor

     16GB of DDR3 1600MHz RAM

     NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 graphics card

     2x 1TB Samsung EVO 850 SSDs in RAID 0

I have enabled and disabled features like AMD-V and RVI to see if those made any difference (didn't think they would) but to no avail. I selected different paths for the CD drive, though normally it's just blank. No matter what, I can't get this to work. Anyone have a potential solution? The VMs are choppy and slow without tools installed.

[Gunzar]

Oh; and I should also mention that the first (FX-4170) machine is running Ubuntu 14.04 as host OS. The 2nd (Phenom II x6 1100T) is running Windows 7 x64 Ultimate as the host OS.

[bonnie201110141]

After you hit "Install VMware Tools", will you please screenshot CD/DVD page in VM settings? (Open VM->Settings, click CD/DVD, and do screenshot)

Also, you can manually point CD/DVD to the tools iso on host, for Linux it is at /usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/*.iso, for Windows it is at your Workstation installation directory (C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\*.iso for Win7). You can uncheck/check CD/DVD device a few time to make sure guest can mount tools image correctly.

[mpar]

I see this hasn't been responded, but I'm having a similar problem, except that I can't see the whole DVD-drive in the Windows 10 Guest-OS even after pressing "Install VMware Tools". Anyone know a way around this or how to fix this? This is how the Explorer looks, and the Settings-tab menu for CD/DVD. OS X is the main OS, and I followed these steps to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows 8 VMware KB: Upgrading to Windows 10 using Software Update in Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 virtual mach....

[z_chris]

Hi, do you see the CD/DVD in device manager on the guest OS?

[mpar]

It's in the Device Manager listed with an error "Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged (code 19)". I've tried to change from SATA to IDE in setup but it doesn't do anything, still getting the same error and the drive isn't showing up.

I ended up manually installing the VMware tools from Index of /45848/tools/releases/latest/windows/x64. It doesn't help with the DVD-drive issue as it's still unavailable, but I probably wouldn't even need it that much.