Recently during a 3.5 to 4.0 upgrade, one of the VMs that I was upgrading would not allow the VMware Tools to be updated.  When attempting to remove the program in &quot;Add/Remove Programs&quot; I kept getting an error that the uninstall file could not be found. I manually directed it to the msi file and still received the same error.  In the mean time my VM was unable to connect to the new vSphere vSwitch that I had setup for the new environment (ugh...downtime).  Little did I know that VMware had a solution ready and waiting for me....

<!--more--> VMware has a specialized registry cleaner script available that cleans out all the existing registry keys for the current version of VMware Tools.  A simple and quick .zip file attached to the VMware knowledge base article <a href="http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&amp;cmd=displayKC&amp;externalId=1308" target="_blank">here</a> . (VMware_Install_Cleaner.zip).  Unzip the file and run the executable.  You receive a warning that the tool is going to &quot;forcefully&quot; remove all VMware product installation information from the VM.  Click OK and the cleaner does it's thing.  It removes all the registry keys and install files associated with VMware Tools.  Restart the VM and then reinstall the VMware Tools.

Eureka!! Now the VMware Tools installs with no issues and the VM has all the updated drivers to work with the vSphere systems.  One more reboot and your home free.

Thanks to VMware for having an easy solution to the problem.  For more information read the whole article <a href="http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&amp;cmd=displayKC&amp;externalId=1308" target="_blank">here</a> .