Windows 10 update panic: Older VMware Workstation Pro app broken

Windows 10 users have been complaining since the weekend that VMware Workstation no longer runs after a cumulative Windows 10 Update prevents it from starting. Only older versions of VMware Workstation are affected, but even users willing to pay for an upgrade may face other compatibility issues. The culprit seems to be …

[tiggity]

I bet Hyper-V still works

..For those unaware, MS virtualization tool.

There is a long history of updates breaking non MS products whilst the MS equivalent is unaffected.

The kind hearted may say lack of testing / impossible to try all user cases etc.

The odd thing is, given that VMWare does work after the update - then why does the update flag it as incompatible? Kind hearted view more of a struggle taking that into account.

[katrinab]

Re: I bet Hyper-V still works

Sure, but it would be the latest version of Hyper-V, which presumably gets automatically updated as part of the Windows Update process; and the latest version of VM-Ware still works.

[Androgynous Cow Herd]

Re: I bet Hyper-V still works

If you think Hyper-V is "Equivalent" to either ESX or Workstation....you are kidding yourself.

[Roland6]

Re: 450MB/sec, 1GB/sec?

Bet MS thinks Hyper-V is superior to either ESX or Workstation and as it is bundled why would you not want to use it...

[androgynous cow turd]

Re: I bet Hyper-V still works

True DAT! Who on earth would use Hyper-V... <shudders>

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I bet Hyper-V still works

The people who wrote Hyper-V probably know all the gnarly gotchas deep inside the win10 kernel and what to avoid and what not to do. The VM team I imagine don't, or at least not enough. MS is well known for not documenting things properly at the low level so developers have to guess how to achieve certain things. Sometimes those guesses are correct - until an update means they arn't any more.

[Anonymous Coward]

@boltar - Re: I bet Hyper-V still works

MS is well know for keeping good documentation for its developers and withholding it from competition. There, I've helped you correct your statement.

[Smartcom5]

Re: I bet Hyper-V still works

> Kind hearted view more of a struggle taking that into account.

See, you know Hanlon's razor?

„Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.“ — Robert J. Hanlon · Murphy's Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong!

The thing is, I for one finds it betimes way more fitting if you turn that aphorism into some bon mot already – by twisting the meaning of it right around. Curiously enough, most matters are delivering way more precise findings by doing so.

„Never attribute to stupidity that which is adequately explained by malice.“ — Smartcom5, on dubious situations in markets with competitive character

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I bet Hyper-V still works

Typical M$... Also a warning, if you have any Windows 10 VM's, don't apply 1903! It will not boot on ESXi..

[dnicholas]

"Blocking updates is also not a good long-term strategy, since it leaves Windows 10 vulnerable to security issues."

Windows 10 doesn't look like much of a good long-term strategy either

[chivo243]

another group PO'd

I have to say the paying users are right to be peeved... VM WS14 was released in 2017, in October. 2 years and out!

https://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2017/08/announcing-vmware-workstation-14.html

"Once released this October, in addition to supporting Microsoft’s Fall updates for Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016, and updated Linux support for Fedora 26 and Ubuntu 17.04, Workstation 14 Pro will deliver enhanced security with support for Virtualization Based Security (VBS) features of Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows Server 2016 Guests, improved Virtual Networking, and added new support and controls for working with vSphere and the vCenter Server Appliance."

[fidodogbreath]

Just like the good old days

Windows ain't done until VMWare won't run.

[Shadow Systems]

And they say Win10 is stable?

I wonder how many total issue reports ElReg has posted about Win7 versus Win10? I don't remember any previous version of Windows being this bloody unstable, constantly breaking everything, throwing the toys from the pram, & doing it's utter best to piss off everyone in the world.

A Stable, Fit For Purpose, Ready For Prime Time operating system should not break random bits with every update, take days/weeks/months to get a fix issued for the things the update ruined, & get basic functionality back up & running. I mean FFS, Win10 broke it's own fekkin' network driver & expected everyone to use another computer to download the fix. How fucked up is that?

Win10: avoid it like the plague.

[ivan5]

Re: And they say Win10 is stable?

Just a typical Microsoft win 10 SNAFU.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: And they say Win10 is stable?

"I don't remember any previous version of Windows being this bloody unstable,"

Are you too young to remember Vista? Or the original release of Win'95?

[Boris the Cockroach]

Re: And they say Win10 is stable?

Quote

Are you too young to remember Vista? Or the original release of Win'95?

Of course we're not, Win95 dll hell, or Win ME or Vista (still got a copy of vista knocking about on a laptop... quite why it thrashes the HDD to death I dunno while Linux mint 17 barely even touches the swap file)

But between the bad ones, there are good workable systems, WinXp(once updated), Win7, heck Win98

Why m$ could'nt learn from those operating systems and build from those instead of the clusterfuck we're seeing now I really have no idea

Anyway... new PC looms in a couple of months..... dual boot win10 for games/ a grown up stable O/S for everything else... or worse yet.... no win 10... stick that in your sales results m$

[Anonymous Coward]

@Boris - Re: And they say Win10 is stable?

And, please tell, why would Microsoft learn from those OS versions you mention ? It's not like they will ever lose any clients. Actually, with all their lousy support and quality issues, the number of their customers is increasing and they're making more money than ever. When was the last time an important customer (not like you or me) ditched Windows in disgust and sent a note to Microsoft to let them know about it ?

Oh, and no matter what you do, Microsoft has raked in the money for your Windows so that's another bonus for them. Imagine this, a business that makes money even when users are not using their product. Is good to be king, isn't it ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: @Boris - And they say Win10 is stable?

"When was the last time an important customer (not like you or me) ditched Windows in disgust and sent a note to Microsoft to let them know about it ?"

CERN?

[Anonymous Coward]

@AC - Re: @Boris - And they say Win10 is stable?

Who did this before ? Oh, oh, I remember now! It was the city of Munich.

[ivan5]

Re: @AC - @Boris - And they say Win10 is stable?

Don't forget the French Gendarmes changed to Linux and are still using it unlike Munich that took the brown envelopes from Microsoft.

[Wayland]

Re: @Boris - And they say Win10 is stable?

"When was the last time an important customer (not like you or me) ditched Windows in disgust and sent a note to Microsoft to let them know about it ?"

Pretty much everyone who surfs the Internet does so on a non-microsoft OS.

Many people using Windows don't need to, their computer came like that.

I downloaded a little Autocad DXF-PDF tool so my client can see Autocad drawings as PDF. My client does not use Autocad which I think only works on Windows but this little Windows tool downloaded, installed and ran on my Linux Mint PC just like it would on a Windows PC. WINE did it all without me doing anything.

It is the software developers keeping people on Windows but they don't even have to learn Linux to write programs for Linux. They just gotta make sure WINE can handle them.

Windows is living on it's fading legacy. Windows 7 is the last Windows for many people.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Wayland - Re: @Boris - And they say Win10 is stable?

You forgot to tell us if your client ditched Windows licenses completely.

[The Average Joe]

Re: @Boris - And they say Win10 is stable?

Henry Ford had that for a while, you could buy any color of Model T you wanted as long as it was black. If users could switch from Windows to something else like they switch from a Ford to a Dodge I think we would see a different Microsoft or they would go under doing stupid sh!t!

[Shadow Systems]

At John Brown, re: Vista & 95...

I remember them both vividly in my screaming nightmares, but even *combined* those two abominations don't hold a fekkin candle to the utter Satans bunghole pustule crust that is Win10.

I skipped Vista because the computer I had at the time was already more powerful than what the "made for Vista" spec sheets proclaimed. I was a QA tester at <mutters in shame>Packard Bell</mutters> dealing with the foibles of 95 & got to the point where I could bludgeon that bad bastard into some reasonable version of useability fairly quickly, but I admit PB's headaches trying to get USB to work made me wonder if MS had it's head up it's arse when they wrote the drivers. The PB coders had to write their own USB drivers to work with the PB kit, so I swiped a copy & used it at home. I can't remember what I had to get the PB driver to work on non PB hardware, but I eventually got it to play nice & enjoyed my relatively stable system until 98 came along.

I wasn't working at PB any longer (thanks the gods!) & could afford a real computer, so my USB headaches went out the window (no pun intended) with 95's ousting.

When my friends came to me with their Vista hobbled machines & asked me to fix it, I'd ask them if they had any other OS install media at hand. "Vista is to computers what four flat tires, two broken axels, & a burnt out engine are to auto racing."

*Cough*

=-)P

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: And they say Win10 is stable?

Or the original release of Win'95?

Or Windows 2 and 3.. 3.11 was (minimally) usable but still more unstable than Boris..

[Wayland]

Re: And they say Win10 is stable?

"Are you too young to remember Vista? Or the original release of Win'95?"

With Vista we still had XP and then Windows 7. With Windows 10 we have Windows 7 support ending soon and no sign that Windows 10 will ever be fixed. It's well established that Windows 10 works this way. Get some updates and loads of things stop working and require time and effort to fix. You can't even control updates any more.

Windows 95 was a massive upgrade from Windows 3.1 for workgroups. but was eventually replaced by the NT4 line of OS.

Windows 10 offers nothing that cannot be done in Windows 7 except those things imposed on us. It takes away things which used to work fine such as storing files on a LAN server, much more difficult and frequent problems.

[The Average Joe]

Re: And they say Win10 is stable?

Windows updates on Windows 7 are made to be painful, windows updates on Server 2008r2 are fast... Hmmmmm. Windows 10 updates are fast. We are in an abusive relationship where we get pushed down the stairs every so often so we do not talk back. We tell everyone else that it was our mistake we fell down the stairs again... Call it what you want but this is a hostile relationship and we have no way out, nowhere to go.

[ovation1357]

Re: And they say Win10 is stable?

"A Stable, Fit For Purpose, Ready For Prime Time operating system"

You mean one of the mainstream stable Linux distros, or (dare I say it as I personally don't like it) macOS?

Win XP only seemed good because they finally built a desktop OS on the NT kernel which made it a lot less likely for a single app to spanner the whole OS.

Win 7 was okay in the main but still plagued with security problems and nightmares with Windows Update

I ditched Windows for Linux 12 years ago and have never ever looked back. I'm even at the point where only rarely need to boot Windows in a VM.

Yeah I know this is yet another Windows vs Linux comment but I whole heartedly fail to understand why people continue to accept (and pay dearly for) such utter crap from Microsoft - I just don't get it :-/

[ArrZarr]

Re: And they say Win10 is stable?

Because Businesses run on Word, Excel and PowerPoint. There are Linux, Mac and even Android versions, sure, but the apps will probably be the best on Windows.

If it's used in the office, it's less difficult to just use it at home because in general, it "just works". Anything a regular user needs to do is covered and if they need to find a setting, they need only Google it and have the best chance of finding an answer due to the huge install base.

Because people use it at home, the most applications, in the widest range are available, including games, which are one of the main use-cases of home PCs.

The Windows ecosystem is self-perpetuating at this stage. The only way for it to stop self-perpetuating would be for MS to stop existing so that new PCs weren't sold with Windows and new computers would be sold with another OS by necessity.

[Wayland]

Re: And they say Win10 is stable?

"Because Businesses run on Word, Excel and PowerPoint."

People love their MS Outlook 2010 even though it's a really poor IMAP client compared to say Thunderbird. Familiarity has locked them in more than any actual functionality.

There are features of MS Office that if you need them then you have no choice. For most people these probably aren't features they have ever used. Look how much people seem to be able to do on Smartphones these days. I personally feel like the phone is far too basic compared to any personal computer.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Win XP only seemed good because they finally built a desktop OS on the NT kernel"

Actually. that was Windows NT4 first, and then Windows 2000 brought in the missing goodies from Win9x (DirectX and some laptop/USB functionalities). XP was the third iteration.

[MrReynolds2U]

Re: "Win XP only seemed good because they finally built a desktop OS on the NT kernel"

Ah "Windows NT4 Workstation" ... I don't think I ever saw one in the wild

[Scott 53]

Re: "Win XP only seemed good because they finally built a desktop OS on the NT kernel"

Ah "Windows NT4 Workstation" ... I don't think I ever saw one in the wild

We had to use it at an FE college as our key application wasn't certified to work on Win 95. It worked perfectly on Win 95, but as it wasn't certified we didn't take the risk. It didn't crash often, as I recall, but it took a while to get used to pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del to log in rather than triggering a reboot.

[The Average Joe]

Re: "Win XP only seemed good because they finally built a desktop OS on the NT kernel"

In engineering we had a lot that ran the CAD software. I still have some of the disc's

[Keith Langmead]

Re: "Win XP only seemed good because they finally built a desktop OS on the NT kernel"

"Actually. that was Windows NT4 first, and then Windows 2000 brought in the missing goodies from Win9x (DirectX and some laptop/USB functionalities). XP was the third iteration."

But technically XP was the first version that was NT based but intended for home use. Before then, Windows 2000 was intended to be the successor to NT4 for business use, with Windows ME as the companion successor to Windows 98 for home use. But as we know that sucked, and many people opted for 2000 at home as well, so ME was the end of the line for that kernel and from XP onwards they stuck to a single codebase.

[ovation1357]

Re: "Win XP only seemed good because they finally built a desktop OS on the NT kernel"

But NT4 and 2000 both had incredibly limited hardware support, especially for consumer peripherals and were never targeted at the home market. XP in my mind was really the first time they took the so called 'plug and play' approach on a true desktop OS that was based on NT kernel.

2000 iirc was really aimed at the server market - I remember being very bemused that the basic installation of Win 2k server included a load of games by default! I could never see the sense in running a full blown GUI with visual effects and other bells and whistles and wasting valuable resources on a server. I guess Windows 'core' installations are now that answer to that but it still seems terribly inelegant to me.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I don't remember any previous version of Windows being this bloody unstable"

Because before they wouldn't touch the kernel but for fixes for a few years - but in well-controlled SPs-, and had in-house paid professional testers.

Not surprisingly, issues came when big kernel changes were adopted, like in Vista, and were rushed out because it took too long to develop them (and some were even dropped).

Now with Windows 10 they decided they can tinker with the kernel every six months and rush changes out to guinea pigsusers - although there are hints that maybe they understood they can't keep such pace without breaking things at a Facebookian level - something professional unable to buy LTS licenses may not be happy with.

[Pete4000uk]

Re: And they say Win10 is stable?

I use win10 Pro at home and it does throw a wobbly at least once a week.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: And they say Win10 is stable?

", Win10 broke it's own fekkin' network driver & expected everyone to use another computer to download the fix. How fucked up is that?"

Very, but I see that mentality a lot in the business world unfortiunately. Our company no longer has landlines in the office - everything is done on Skype including tech support. Whats the problem you say? Well none - until your PC breaks as mine did recently and Skype and email no longer work. And with our IT support literally being the other side of the world I couldn't just walk to thei IT support floor in person. In the end I decided I wasn't going to spend my own money phoning them on my mobile at internaitonal rates but got a colleague to skype on my behalf - when he had time.

The lost productivity of both myself and my colleagues time and others who've been in a similar situation recently is almost certainly more costly than installing 1 emergency landline phone in the office but its a hidden cost so the bean counters don't notice or care, its not on the balance sheet so "meh".

/rant.

[The Average Joe]

Re: And they say Win10 is stable?

Windows 10 is our only choice in corporate America. Our apps are win32/64 and only work on Windows. Windows 7 will no longer get security updates in January 2020.

Pick your poison.

Google needs to fund Wine to run everything and allow us to use Linux, chromebooks or Mac computers to run win32/64 apps.

Back in the day IBM had a source code license of Windows 3.1 so that OS/2 could run all win 3.1 apps. Maybe it is time someone gets a source code license and delivers IBM Windows 10.1....

[Anonymous Coward]

“VMware Workstation Pro can’t run on Windows"

Try Linux version :)

[jeff_w87]

Vmware Workstation will run on Linux also

Sounds like maybe it's time to look into ditching Windows (all users are now beta testers of our software because we fired all the real testers) completely.

[Claverhouse]

Not their fault.

Well, I'm sure Microsoft is doing the very best it possibly can.

[John_3_16]

Trade in MS headaches 4 Linux adventures...

I have been battling MS OS's since their garage days. CPM, Apple & IBM were all great at the time. MS went to hell after DOS 6.0. I have now sworn off MS. Nothing Win 10 has to offer is needed here. Win 7 has been shaky enough. In the process now of going with RoboLinux which seamlessly runs Win7 & XP in VM. Will slowly convert my MS required programs over so VM is needed less & less.

MS can keep all those headaches at MS Central. Looking forward to my new Linux adventures.

God bless all & help those addicted to MS...

[steviebuk]

And I was going to upgrade one of my home machines

To Windows 10 finally. But no longer interested again.

[Snorlax]

Re: And I was going to upgrade one of my home machines

"

And I was going to upgrade one of my home machines

To Windows 10 finally. But no longer interested again.

"

VMWare Workstation 14 compatibility was the dealbreaker, eh?

[Wayland]

Re: And I was going to upgrade one of my home machines

No the deal breaker is that they still have not fixed Windows 10, it's still in beta.

[Snorlax]

Re: And I was going to upgrade one of my home machines

lol, you’re original. Never heard that gem before...

[Conscious and verbal]

A Win 10 fix is on its way, according to Redmond magazine 28th/Sep/2019

Known problem for most of 2019, see

https://redmondmag.com/articles/2019/08/28/hyper-v-support-coming-to-vmware-workstation.aspx

[Anonymous Coward]

Errr????

"In a thread on Microsoft's site, one affected user complained that upgrading their 100 VMware Workstation licences would cost €11,500"

What moron is buying 100 licenses for an application without ongoing maintenance? Stop Complaining and do your job, manage your estate and stay current.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Errr????

"Stop Complaining and do your job, manage your estate and stay current."

Maybe it's not their call? Maybe management/finance won't pay for it ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: maybe.....

Maybe all of those are nothing to do with Microsoft?

[sabroni]

it works on up to date versions

Why are people running the old one?

If this is ms pushing people to ms products why have they only broken the old one?

My first thought was "they've spotted a bug in the old version and want to push you to update.". Should i be more paranoid? The conspiracy theories are certainly more fun....

[Wayland]

Re: it works on up to date versions

"Why are people running the old one?" in the article it said that the new VM may not run on the old hardware. Yes people should have spotted this coming but probably were timing it with their hardware refresh cycle. 'when we get the new hardware we will install the new VM ware'. Microsoft has forced their hand.

I expect they will be able to fix this by fitting new CPUs but it's a real hassle.

[Snorlax]

Funny thing is...

...that there's a certain circle of Reg commentards who expect Microsoft to issue regular patches for everything back to XP, but when a third-party's software needs patching to work that's still Microsoft's fault.

Workstation 14 Pro and Workstation 14 Player are no longer supported as of 26 March 2019.

Time for you tightwads and hangers-on to upgrade to 15:

Upgrading from VMware Workstation Pro 14 to VMware Workstation Pro 15 (2126729)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Funny thing is...

Absolutely agree.

No enterprise desktop or laptop* build should have any software installed that has gone past vendor "end of support".

That is a non-negotiable. Upgrade, preferably before the end of support date.

(*= or switch, router, load balancer, SAN / NAS, hypervisor, PC / server / laptop BIOS, LOM / iLO, firewall, Wifi access points, HSM's, CCTV, building management systems, etc.)

[Anonymous Coward]

@Snorlax - Re: Funny thing is...

Sorry for bringing you down from your high horses but Microsoft could simply notify you and allow you to run it at your own risk (the civilized way) instead of unilaterally deciding to block it. That's the whole point of our discussion here.

[Snorlax]

Re: @Snorlax - Funny thing is...

Sorry for bringing you down from your high horses but Microsoft could simply notify you and allow you to run it at your own risk (the civilized way) instead of unilaterally deciding to block it. That's the whole point of our discussion here.

The whole point of my post, as you've just illustrated, is that some people appear to have an irrational expectation that software to be supported forever. Apparently even if it has security issues...as you say "allow you to run it at your own risk" smh

The version of VMWare Workstation complained about isn't even supported by VMWare, so explain to me what duty Microsoft has to a VMWare customer in this situation.

[Martin hepworth]

Workstation maintenance

If you've you workstation licence on maintenance/support you the updated included so.....

[johnnymac]

Get Vmware working again on your PC

Download Microsoft's Application Compatibility toolkit https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/get-started/adk-install#adkwin10

When installing make sure you select the compatibility administrator.

Launch the Compatibility administrator 32bit

under application locate VMware workstation pro and disable it. (Right click on vmplayer.exe and VMware.exe)

I would install workstation 15 but they banned all CPUs that are not recent and not ready to buy a new PC yet.

VMware working again!!!

[abcwarriors]

Re: Get Vmware working again on your PC

Thanks johnnymac, that worked perfectly for me. I owe you a beer-equivalent-credit-unit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Scam

Getting more and more annoyed with the way modern computing is going with everything being pushed to the cloud whether you want it or not. Got into work this morning to read the Message Center Major Change Update Not from Office 365. It mentioned, which I'd never seen before, Modern Lifecycle Policy. Essentially stating if you want to continue to use Office 365 you have to keep your machine updated and not be on Windows 7.

I was fuming. We're all on Windows 10 here but it's not the point. They are becoming more and more like Apple. What happened to the days when you could buy Office on a DVD and then use it for years. You didn't care if it was old or insecure, the machine you're using it on isn't online anyway. What I don't understand is the champion of so much "cloud" usage. Both GSuite and Office 365 online suffer from the massive issue of missing lots of features that are only available offline. Excel Online appears to not allow you to password protect spreadsheets. Both Word online and Google Docs only allow you one page orientation throughout a document only, unlike Word Offline. Google Sheets is nowhere near as powerful as Excel offline and many more missing features I can't think of now.

Everyone appears to be ignoring your paying the same amount for their cloud services but getting less than the offline versions. At least with the offline versions you can avoid updates and avoid features being removed at will by MS.

I really do wish I had the money to retire from computing now. I love it, but hate the way its going in the corporate world and somewhat hate all this "cloud" bollocks. Especially because they make out its a new thing when it isn't. It's essentially what mainframes were. And I guess a part of me is scared I'll be made redundant at some point.

[sgrier23]

VMWare 12 with KB4517211

Hi

I need assistance here, we have a number of VMWare 12 machines which stopped working a few days ago, after reading this article I removed KB4517211 in the hope that VMWare 12 will start working again...

Unfortunately, the VMWare Workstation on these machines still don't work. I did a gpupdate/force and marked the update on our WSUS server to be uninstalled from the client PC's. The updates have just been applied, and I am waiting to see what happens.

The question I have is, is there potentially any more MS updates which are causing this issue.

Thanks in advance.

S.