I had VMware Workstation 8 working fine on a Windows 7 64-Bit machine.
I bought Workstation 9 and tried to install it, and it said it had to uninstall version 8.
Well, it failed. Now I cannot install ANY version, whether it's version 7, 8, or 9, all registered versions.
The installer is apparently unable to deal with an error uninstalling a previous version. Why?
[ at this point, Monday Dec 17, 2012, it's all fixed thanks to VMware telephone tech support. It involved several
steps, and one key was to use microsoft's Fixit utility from here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2438651/en-us
and the VMware knowledge base article 1308 http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1308.
The microsoft fixit scanner didn't find VMware, but it did show "unknown" (or other?) and the VMware
support tech grabbed the key from the above 1308 article
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{0D94F75A-0EA6-4951-B3AF-B145FA9E05C6}
pasting in the registry key where requested by the fixit utility
{0D94F75A-0EA6-4951-B3AF-B145FA9E05C6}
That noted an error, and fixed it.
My options are:
1. Reinstall Windows OS and start from scratch (that will take a couple of days of catching up with installed programs).
NOTE: DID NOT HAVE TO DO THIS THANKS TO VMWARE SUPPORT
2. Completely remove ALL vestiges of previous VMware installations so I can install without being told that the installer found another version.
NOTE: THIS WAS DONE BY THE TECH USING THEIR REMOTE CONTROL PROGRAM
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They have the "/clean" option on the installer, that doesn't work, but it should do what it pretends to do, remove all prior keys and elements.
How about a VMware solution that fixes what the installer obviously cannot fix. It should prepare my computer so it will NOT report any previous versions of VMware so I can install either Version 7, 8, or 9.
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With help from VMware support, they were able to completely remove VMware and install VMware 9. I'm going
to try to writeup what they did, but the solution took about 30 minutes, and a lot of finding and deleting of
VMware directories.
I now have version 9 installed, and it works great.
Message was edited by: jeff92677 -- TO EXPLAIN THAT THE PROBLEM IS SOLVED, AND THANKS TO VMWARE FOR THE SOLUTION