September 2012

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If you are using vCenter Server, you can use the Virtual Machines tab for a host or cluster and select the
virtual machines on which to install or upgrade VMware Tools.
Regardless of which strategy you use, you can specify options for the components you want to include or
exclude.
Prerequisites
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Power on the virtual machine.
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Log in to the guest operating system as an administrator.
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If you plan to use setup.exe at the command line to run the VMware Tools installation, edit the virtual
machine settings to connect the virtual CD/DVD drive to the VMware Tools ISO image. In VMware
Workstation and Player, the windows.iso file is on the host in the directory where you installed
Workstation or Player.
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If you want to use MSI arguments to specify options regarding the silent installation, go to the Windows
Installer page on the MSDN Web site to familiarize yourself with the syntax. You can use these arguments
with the setup.exe command or place them in the vCenter Server dialog box for automatic installations
and upgrades.
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If you want to prevent some VMware Tools components from being installed, familiarize yourself with
the VMware Tools component names so that you can specify which components to exclude. See “Names
of VMware Tools Components Used in Silent Installations,” on page 16.
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If you are installing VMware Tools from a beta or release candidate of a VMware product, suppress
prompts about unsigned drivers. See “Suppress Prompts About Unsigned Drivers on Pre-Windows Vista
Operating Systems,” on page 18 and “Add VMware as a Trusted Publisher to Suppress Driver
Prompts,” on page 19.
Procedure
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If you use VMware Workstation or Player, use the setup.exe command.
a Open a command prompt in the guest operating system and change directories to the virtual CD/DVD
drive.
b Enter the setup.exe command with any MSI arguments.
setup.exe /S /v "/qn msi_args "
To exclude some of the VMware Tools components, use the ADDLOCAL and REMOVE options.
setup.exe /S /v "/qn msi_args ADDLOCAL=ALL REMOVE= component "
For example, the following command performs a silent installation and suppresses rebooting when
installation is complete. This command also installs all components except the shared folders
component.
setup.exe /S /v "/qn REBOOT=R ADDLOCAL=ALL REMOVE=Hgfs"
The next example shows the same command, but with logging added.
setup.exe /S /v "/qn /l*v ""%TEMP%\vmmsi.log"" REBOOT=R ADDLOCAL=ALL REMOVE=Hgfs"
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If you use vCenter Server, use the Virtual Machines tab to select multiple virtual machines.
a In the Inventory > Hosts and Clusters view, select the host, cluster, or datacenter and click the Virtual
Machines tab.
b Control-click or Shift-click to select the virtual machines.
Chapter 2 Installing and Upgrading VMware Tools
VMware, Inc. 15