Windows 7 VMWare Workstation 16 VMWare Tools

It used to be that with Windows 7 SP1 in combination with VMWare Workstation , you could install VMware Tools without problem.

Since the release of VMware Workstation 16 however, the installation won't complete successfully if the VM is not fully updated.

What happens without updating Windows

When installing VMWare Tools on Windows 7, these warnings will be displayed consecutively:

• VSock Virtual Machine Communication Interface Sockets driver

• Host Guest Shared Folders driver

Afterwards you may get the following error: "Windows can't verify the publisher of this driver software".

It seems that VMware has updated their drivers, and the certificates are now signed using the SHA-2 encryption algorithm. This algorithm is not supported by default on Windows 7.

Meeting the prerequisites

So it seems there are some new prerequisites required for installing the VMware Tools of VMware Workstation 16 on Windows 7. On VMWare's website, it can be seen that VMware Tools 11.1.5, requires Windows 7 SP1 with the update KB4474419.

First make sure Windows 7 SP1 is installed if it isn't already. Otherwise, download it from Microsoft Update catalog and install it in the virtual machine.

When searching for "KB4474419" on the VMware site, you will arrive on a page: SHA-2 code signing support update ... This update adds support for the SHA-2 algorithm for code signing.

This will allow Windows 7 to be able to correctly check the signature of various drivers like the one's VMWare Tools needs.

It is recommended to download this update manually from the Microsoft Update Catalog by following this link : KB4474419. Or, you can use Windows Update from the control panel, this might take a while however if updates were previously set to manual or disabled.

On the mentioned link, sort the list by date, then download the one you need for your particular Windows installation:

Windows 7 x86 : Windows 7 32-bit, Windows 7 x64 : Windows 7 64-bit

Then click the "Download" button, a window will open up with a blue link that can be clicked.

Putting the update on the virtual machine can be done in several ways :

• Download it using a browser on the virtual machine.

• Put the file on a USB drive and mount it to the virtual machine from VMware Workstation.

• Drag and drop the file into the virtual machine (provided the current VMWare Tools is in a working state)

Then, double click the update file.

A new window will appear : Security Update for Windows (KB4474419).

Please wait while this update is installing, afterwards restart the virtual machine.

Install VMware Tools on Windows 7

Installing VMware Tools can now simply be done by clicking on : VM -> Install VMware Tools inside VMWare Workstation with the Windows 7 VM started.

Run through the installation process like normally. That's it, you now have working VMWare Tools on your Windows 7 VM!

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