Before you upgrade VMware Tools, consider the environment that the virtual machine runs in and weigh the benefits of different upgrade strategies. For example, you can install the latest version of VMware Tools to enhance the performance of the virtual machine's guest operating system and improve virtual machine management, or you can continue using the existing version to provide more flexibility and avoid downtime in your environment.
For Windows 2000 and later, VMware Tools installs a virtual machine upgrade helper tool. This tool restores the network configuration if you upgrade from virtual hardware version 4 to version 7 or later. In vSphere, virtual hardware version 4 corresponds to ESX/ESXi 3.5 compatibility. Virtual hardware version 7 corresponds to ESX/ESXi 4.x compatibility.
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Because the VMware Tools installer is written in Perl, verify that Perl is installed in the guest operating system. |
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In VMware Workstation Pro and Workstation Player, the windows.iso file is on the host in the directory where you installed Workstation Pro or Workstation Player. |
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If you plan to use MSI arguments to specify options regarding the silent installation, go to the Windows Installer page on the MSDN Web site to familiarize yourself with the syntax. You can use these arguments with the setup.exe command or place them in the vCenter Server dialog box for automatic installations and upgrades. |
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To prevent some VMware Tools components from being installed, familiarize yourself with the VMware Tools component names so that you can specify which components to exclude. See Names of VMware Tools Components Used in Silent Installations. |
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If you are installing VMware Tools from a beta or release candidate of a VMware product, suppress prompts about unsigned drivers. See Suppress Prompts About Unsigned Drivers on Windows Operating Systems Before... and Add VMware as a Trusted Publisher to Suppress Driver Prompts.... |