How to install VMware tools on Linux and Windows virtual machine

To install VMware tools for Linux and Windows virtual machines the users just need to perform a few simples steps given in this article.

Like Oracle VirtualBox extension pack to add extra features for the installed virtual machines, the VMware also offers the VMware tools.

After installing the VMware tools which is a pack of different utilities offered by VMware the user will notice an improvement in the performance of the guest operating systems. It will improve the low Low video resolution,
Inadequate colour depth, restricted movement of the mouse, Inability to copy and paste and drag-and-drop files, Incorrect display of network speed, Missing sound, give the ability to snapshots of the guest OS and synchronizes the time.

The process of the VMware tools installation is the same for Linux such as Ubuntu, Kali, Linux Mint, Debian, Centos, OpenSuse, etc including Windows10/8/7 or any.

Download and Install VMware Tools on Linux and Windows 10/8/7

Step 1: Run VMware Workstation player

First of all, open the VMware workstation payer where you have installed the Linux and Windows virtual machines.

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Step 2: Select and start VirtualMachine

After opening the VMware player, select the Virtual machine which you want to run and where you want to install the Vmware tools. It could Windows 10/8/7 or any Linux Distro.

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Step 3: Find the Install VMware Tools option

When the Virtual Machine booted completely then go to the Player option given in the VMware player menu. Click on that and then click on the Manage->Install Vmware Tools option.

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Step 4: Downloading Vmware Tools

As we click on the Install Vmware tools option, the Player automatically detects the system and download Vmware tool for Linux or Windows respectively.

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Step 5: Installing VMware Tools on Linux

On Windows, the installation of Vmware Tools is super easy after downloading the Vmware player simply mount that under CD-Rom automatically from where the user can install it just like any other normal software. However, it is also the same for GUI based Linux operating systems too.

As you can see in the below screenshot, the VMware Tools has been mounted and shown with CD-ROM icon on the screen.

To install this open the command terminal and follow the below-given commands:

Login as root user:

su

Create a directory cdrom to mount the Vmware tools disc

mkdir /mnt/cdrom

Now, mount the Cdrom to above-created cdrom directory

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

See the list of files mounted under the directory

ls /mnt/cdrom

Copy the VMwareTools compress file name and use with below copy command. Like in our case it was  VMwareTools-10.3.2-9925305.tar.gz and might be different while you are installing it. So, copy that one and paste with below command:

Here we are copying the VmwareTools to a temporary directory for the installation process.

cp /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-10.3.2-9925305.tar.gz /tmp/

Switch to the Temporary directory…

cd /tmp

List the files and extract the VMware tools compress file

ls

tar -zxvf VMwareTools-10.3.2-9925305.tar.gz

Now change the directory to the directory extracted by the Vmware tools which is VMware-tools-distrib

cd vmware-tools-distrib

Run Perl script as mentioned below

./vmware-install.pl

Press or hit Enter key couple of times to select the default options of these tools…

The output of the above commands

root@h2smedia:/tmp/vmware-tools-distrib# ./vmware-install.pl 
A previous installation of VMware Tools has been detected.
The previous installation was made by the tar installer (version 4).
Keeping the tar4 installer database format.
You have a version of VMware Tools installed.  Continuing this install will first uninstall the currently installed version.  Do you wish to continue? 
(yes/no) [yes] 

INPUT: [yes]  default

Uninstalling the tar installation of VMware Tools.
Stopping services for VMware Tools
Stopping VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
   Guest operating system daemon:                                      done
   VGAuthService:                                                      done
   VMware User Agent (vmware-user):                                    done
   Blocking file system:                                               done
   Unmounting HGFS shares:                                             done
   Guest filesystem driver:                                            done

cat: /tmp/_cafenv-appconfig_: No such file or directory
This program previously created the directory /etc/vmware-caf/pme/config, and 
was about to remove it. Since there are files in that directory that this 
program did not create, it will not be removed.

This program previously created the directory /etc/vmware-caf/pme, and was 
about to remove it. Since there are files in that directory that this program 
did not create, it will not be removed.

This program previously created the directory /etc/vmware-tools, and was about 
to remove it. Since there are files in that directory that this program did not
create, it will not be removed.

This program previously created the directory /etc/vmware-caf, and was about to
remove it. Since there are files in that directory that this program did not 
create, it will not be removed.

File /etc/pulse/default.pa is backed up to /etc/pulse/default.pa.old.0.

The removal of VMware Tools 10.3.2 build-9925305 for Linux completed 
successfully.
Installing VMware Tools.
In which directory do you want to install the binary files? 
[/usr/bin]   
What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d/)? 
[/etc] 

INPUT: [/etc]  default
What is the directory that contains the init scripts? 
[/etc/init.d] 
INPUT: [/etc/init.d]  default

In which directory do you want to install the daemon files? 
[/usr/sbin] 

INPUT: [/usr/sbin]  default

In which directory do you want to install the library files? 
[/usr/lib/vmware-tools] 

INPUT: [/usr/lib/vmware-tools]  default

The path "/usr/lib/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program is 
going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes] 

INPUT: [yes]  default

In which directory do you want to install the common agent library files? 
[/usr/lib] 
INPUT: [/usr/lib]  default

In which directory do you want to install the common agent transient files? 
[/var/lib] 

INPUT: [/var/lib]  default

In which directory do you want to install the documentation files? 
[/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools] 

INPUT: [/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools]  default

The path "/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program 
is going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you 
want? [yes] 

INPUT: [yes]  default

The installation of VMware Tools 10.3.2 build-9925305 for Linux completed 
successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any 
time by invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl".

Before running VMware Tools for the first time, you need to configure it by 
invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl". Do you want 
this program to invoke the command for you now? [yes] 

INPUT: [yes]  default

Initializing...

Making sure services for VMware Tools are stopped.

Stopping VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
   Guest operating system daemon:                                      done
   VGAuthService:                                                      done
   VMware User Agent (vmware-user):                                    done
   Blocking file system:                                               done
   Unmounting HGFS shares:                                             done
   Guest filesystem driver:                                            done

The module vmci has already been installed on this system by another installer 
or package and will not be modified by this installer.

The module vsock has already been installed on this system by another installer
or package and will not be modified by this installer.

The module vmxnet3 has already been installed on this system by another 
installer or package and will not be modified by this installer.

The module pvscsi has already been installed on this system by another 
installer or package and will not be modified by this installer.

The module vmmemctl has already been installed on this system by another 
installer or package and will not be modified by this installer.

The VMware Host-Guest Filesystem allows for shared folders between the host OS 
and the guest OS in a Fusion or Workstation virtual environment.  Do you wish 
to enable this feature? [yes] 

INPUT: [yes]  default

The vmxnet driver is no longer supported on kernels 3.3 and greater. Please 
upgrade to a newer virtual NIC. (e.g., vmxnet3 or e1000e)

The vmblock enables dragging or copying files between host and guest in a 
Fusion or Workstation virtual environment.  Do you wish to enable this feature?
[yes] 

INPUT: [yes]  default


VMware automatic kernel modules enables automatic building and installation of
VMware kernel modules at boot that are not already present. This feature can
be enabled/disabled by re-running vmware-config-tools.pl.

Would you like to enable VMware automatic kernel modules?
[yes] 

INPUT: [yes]  default

Disabling timer-based audio scheduling in pulseaudio.

Do you want to enable Guest Authentication (vgauth)? Enabling vgauth is needed 
if you want to enable Common Agent (caf). [yes] 

INPUT: [yes]  default

Do you want to enable Common Agent (caf)? [no] 

INPUT: [no]  default

Detected X server version 1.20.0

Distribution provided drivers for Xorg X server are used.

Skipping X configuration because X drivers are not included.

Creating a new initrd boot image for the kernel.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.17.0-kali1-amd64
cryptsetup: WARNING: Honoring CRYPTSETUP=[y|n] will deprecated in the future. 
    Please uninstall the 'cryptsetup-initramfs' package if you don't want the 
    cryptsetup initramfs integration.

NOTE: both /etc/vmware-tools/GuestProxyData/server/key.pem and 
      /etc/vmware-tools/GuestProxyData/server/cert.pem already exist.
      They are not generated again. To regenerate them by force,
      use the "vmware-guestproxycerttool -g -f" command.

The configuration of VMware Tools 10.3.2 build-9925305 for Linux for this 
running kernel completed successfully.

You must restart your X session before any mouse or graphics changes take 
effect.

To enable advanced X features (e.g., guest resolution fit, drag and drop, and 
file and text copy/paste), you will need to do one (or more) of the following:
1. Manually start /usr/bin/vmware-user
2. Log out and log back into your desktop session
3. Restart your X session.

Enjoy,

--the VMware team

Found VMware Tools CDROM mounted at /media/cdrom0. Ejecting device /dev/sr0 ...

Found VMware Tools CDROM mounted at /mnt/cdr/ Ejecting device /dev/sr0 ...

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Second Method: Direct Download VMware tools

If you are not able to download the tools from the interface of Vmware player; then visit the official website of Vmware and download Vmware tools directly to install.

Here is the link for downloading.

In this way, we can install Vmware tools on Linux or windows

Other Useful Resources:

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• Install VirtualBox step by step on Windows 10/7
• How to install Vmware workstation Player on Ubuntu Linux
• 8 Free & Open source Virtual machine manager for Linux
• How to access Windows system files from Ubuntu subsystem Linux terminal