I downloaded this patch ( 2019-09 Security Update for Windows 7 for x86-based Systems (KB4474419)) directly to the newly create Windows 7 VM and installed it.VMware Tools requires Windows 7 SP1 to have KB4474419 update installed, See.After the OS was installed I applied the following MS Patch.I allowed the OS installation to complete. When creating it I made sure the ISO path pointed to the Windows 7 SP1 ISO and Workstation adjusted the VM hardware to be compatible with Windows 7 SP1. Option 2: After Windows 7 SP1 installation is complete, manually install the SHA-2 update, and then install VMtools. From there you should be able to install VMTools. Option 1: Create an updated Windows 7SP1 ISO by slip streaming in the Convenience Rollup Patch (More details here) and then use this slipstreamed ISO to do the install on Workstation. Users have 2 options when doing new installs.

What are options to fix this?īy default Windows 7×32 SP1 doesn’t include the needed SHA-2 updates. For a bit more information See VMware KB 78655. So if you deploy the Windows 7 SP1 x32 ISO (which doesn’t have the SHA-2 patch) the vmtools install will fail because it cannot validate the drivers. As Workstation 16 released updates it too included updated VMtools that were complaint with the Microsoft SHA-2 requirements. Starting September 2019, Microsoft added SHA-2 algorithm requirements for driver signing. You may recall that Workstation 16.0.0 could install Windows 7SP1 x32 without any additional intervention.

So what changed and why all these extra steps? There are a few tricks when installing Windows 7 x32 on to Workstation 16.1.2 and in this blog I’ll cover the the steps I took. I then tried to install VMware tools manually but it failed. After installing Windows 7 x32 I noticed VMware tools is grayed out. This past weekend I needed to install Windows 7 x32 to support some older software. Tips for installing Windows 7 x32 SP1 on Workstation 16.1.2

Vmware 16.1