VMware Tools 12.1.5 Release Notes
Introduction
VMware Tools | 29 NOV 2022 | Build 20735119 Check for additions and updates to these release notes. |
What's New
This is a maintenance release of VMware Tools to provide fixes for critical product issues and security issues.
- This release resolves CVE-2022-31693. For more information on this vulnerability and its impact on VMware products, see https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2022-0029.html.
- Updated OpenSSL version to 3.0.7
- Updated zlib version to 1.2.12 with additional fixes
- Updated glib version to 2.56.3 with additional fixes
- Updated libxml2 version to 2.10.2
Earlier Releases of VMware Tools
- For earlier releases of VMware Tools, see the VMware Tools Documentation page.
Before You Begin
- VMware Tools 12.1.5 supports the following guest operating systems:
- windows.iso supports Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and later.
- The Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package is a prerequisite for installing VMware Tools for Windows 12.1.5 and ships with the VMware Tools 12.1.5 download package. While preparing a Windows guest for installation, VMware Tools runs the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package installer which checks for the presence of a more recent version on the guest. If the guest has a more recent version already present, the package does not install.For a 32-bit Windows guest, the prerequisite version is Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x86) version 14.32.31326.0.For a 64-bit Windows guest, the prerequisite versions are Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x86) version 14.32.31326 and Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x64) version 14.32.31326.0.
- Installing or upgrading to VMware Tools 12.1.5 is not supported for Windows versions that do not meet the prerequisite. Customers should continue to use VMware Tools 10.2.x or older until they can patch or update their Windows OS to meet the prerequisites for VMware Tools 12.1.5.Refer to Microsoft's update KB2977003 for latest supported Visual C++ downloads.
- Windows OS level prerequisites
- Windows Server 2022
- Windows 11
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows 10
- Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft's update KB2919355
- Windows 8.1 with Microsoft's update KB2919355
- Windows Server 2012
- Windows 8
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) with Microsoft's update KB4474419
- Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) with Microsoft's update KB4474419
- darwin.iso ,version 12.1.0, supports Mac OS X versions 10.11 and later.
- For details on linux.iso, refer to VMware Tools 10.3.25 Release Notes.
- For details on solaris.iso, refer to VMware Tools 10.3.10 Release Notes.
- VMware Tools ISO images are frozen for some end of life guest operating systems. Some ISO images are not included with ESXi in the tools-light VIB. For more details, see the VMware Tools Documentation page. All VMware Tools ISO images are available for download from https://support.broadcom.com.
- VMware Tools for Windows:32-bit and 64-bit installer executable (.exe) files are available for download. These files are provided for easier access and installation of VMware Tools in Windows guest operating systems.
Important note about upgrading to ESXi 6.5 or later
Resolution on incompatibility and general guidelines: While upgrading ESXi hosts to ESXi 6.5 or later, and using older versions of Horizon View Agent, refer to the knowledge base article: Connecting to View desktops with Horizon View Agent 6.1.x hosted on ESXi 6.0 or later fails with a black screen.
Internationalization
VMware Tools 12.1.5 is available in the following languages:
- English
- French
- German
- Spanish
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Simplified Chinese
- Traditional Chinese
Product Support Notice
- VMware Tools 12.1.0 was the last regular release for macOS. Refer KB 88698 for details.
- The Windows pre-Vista iso image for VMWare Tools is no longer packaged with ESXi. The Windows pre-Vista iso image is available for download by users who require it. For download information, see the Product Download page.
End of Feature Support Notice
- VMware Tools ships PVSCSI floppy images and PVSCSI drivers in Tools ISO for OS installation on a PVSCSI disk controller. The PVSCSI floppy images for supporting OS versions Vista, Server 2008, and Windows 7 are removed from VMware Tools 12.1.0 and later releases.
- The tar tools (linux.iso) and OSPs shipped with VMware Tools 10.3.x release will continue to be supported. However, releases after VMware Tools 10.3.5 will only include critical and security fixes. No new feature support will be provided in these VMware Tools (tar tools and OSP's). It is recommended that customers use open-vm-tools for those operating systems that support open-vm-tools. For more information about open-vm-tools, see KB 2073803.
Compatibility Notes
- Starting with VMware Tools version 10.2.0, Perl script-based VMware Tools installation for FreeBSD has been discontinued. FreeBSD systems are supported only through the open-vm-tools packages directly available from FreeBSD package repositories. FreeBSD packages for open-vm-tools 10.1.0 and later are available from FreeBSD package repositories.
Guest Operating System Customization Support
The Guest OS Customization Support Matrix provides details about the guest operating systems supported for customization.
Interoperability Matrix
The VMware Product Interoperability Matrix provides details about the compatibility of current and earlier versions of VMware Products.
Installation and Upgrades for this release
VMware Tools can be downloaded from the Product Download page.
The steps to install VMware Tools vary depending on your VMware product and the guest operating system you have installed. For general steps to install VMware Tools in most VMware products, see General VMware Tools installation instructions (1014294).
To set up productLocker to point to the shared datastore, see KB 2004018.
This release provides packages to upgrade VMware Tools 11.2.5 or later deployments using GuestStore.
For specific instructions to install, upgrade, and configure VMware Tools, see the VMware Tools Documentation page.
Windows guest drivers installed by VMware Tools
VMware Tools 12.1.5 supports the following driver versions on a Windows Guest Operating System:
Drivers
|
VMware Tools 12.1.5
|
Hardware Drivers |
|
efifwfromhost.bin |
1.0.0.0 |
pvscsi.sys |
1.3.25.0 |
vmaudio.sys |
5.10.0.3506 |
vmci.sys |
9.8.18.0 |
vmmouse.sys |
12.5.12.0 |
vmusbmouse.sys |
12.5.12.0 |
vmxnet3.sys |
1.9.11.0 |
vm3dmp.sys |
9.17.04.0002 |
Software Drivers |
|
vmhgfs.sys |
11.0.44.0 |
vmmemctl.sys |
7.5.7.0 |
vmrawdsk.sys |
1.1.7.0 |
vnetWFP.sys |
12.1.0.0 |
vsepflt.sys |
12.1.0.0 |
vsock.sys |
9.8.19.0 |
Security DLL |
|
vmwsu.dll |
2.5.1.0 |