Uninstalling VMware Tools

When the upgrade process of VMware Tools is incomplete, you can uninstall and then reinstall VMware Tools.
  • Power on the virtual machine.
  • Log in to the guest operating system.
In a vSphere and open-vm-tools deployment, if you decide to use packages specific to Linux operating systems to manage VMware Tools, and if you already used vSphere to install VMware Tools, you must uninstall the existing VMware Tools. For more information about Linux OSPs for VMware Tools, see Operating System Specific Packages for Linux Guest Operating Systems.
  1. Select a method to uninstall VMware Tools.
    Operating System
    Action
    Windows 7, 8, 8.1, or Windows 10, or Windows 11
    In the guest operating system, start the Control Panel applet, and select
    Programs and Features
    . Select VMware Tools and click
    Uninstall
    .
    Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008
    In the guest operating system, select
    Programs and Features
    Uninstall a program
    .
    Windows XP and earlier
    In the guest operating system, select
    Add/Remove Programs
    .
    Linux
    Log in as root and enter
    vmware-uninstall-tools.pl
    in a terminal window.
    Mac OS X, OS X, or macOS
    Use the
    Uninstall VMware Tools
    application, found in
    /Library/Application Support/VMware Tools
    .
    Windows on ARM
    In the guest operating system, start the Control Panel applet, and select
    Programs and Features
    . Select VMware Tools and click
    Uninstall
    .
    Windows Server 2008 R2 and later
    In the guest operating system, start the Control Panel applet, and select
    Programs and Features
    . Select VMware Tools and click
    Uninstall
    .
  2. Restart the guest operation system.
Reinstall VMware Tools.