September 2012

Contents
About Installing and Configuring VMware Tools 5
1
Components of VMware Tools 7
VMware Tools Service 7
VMware Tools Device Drivers 8
VMware User Process 9
2
Installing and Upgrading VMware Tools 11
Installing VMware Tools 11
Upgrading VMware Tools 12
Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Windows Virtual Machine 13
Automate the Installation of VMware Tools in a Windows Virtual Machine 14
Names of VMware Tools Components Used in Silent Installations 16
Suppress Prompts About Unsigned Drivers on Pre-Windows Vista Operating Systems 18
Add VMware as a Trusted Publisher to Suppress Driver Prompts 19
Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Linux Virtual Machine 20
Operating System Specific Packages for Linux Guest Operating Systems 22
Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Solaris Virtual Machine 22
Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a FreeBSD Virtual Machine 23
Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a NetWare Virtual Machine 25
Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Mac OS X Virtual Machine 26
3
Repairing, Changing, and Uninstalling VMware Tools Components 27
Repair or Change Modules in Windows Virtual Machines 27
Uninstall VMware Tools 28
Start the VMware User Process Manually If You Do Not Use a Session Manager 29
4
Using the VMware Tools Configuration Utility 31
Configure Time Synchronization Between Guest and Host Operating Systems 32
Disable Time Synchronization Completely 33
Connect or Disconnect a Virtual Device 34
Shrink a Virtual Disk 35
Using Custom VMware Tools Scripts 36
Use Custom VMware Tools Scripts in Windows Guests 36
Use Custom Scripts in Operating Systems Other Than Windows 38
Default VMware Tools Scripts 38
Disable a VMware Tools Script 39
Execute Commands During Power Off or Reset of a Virtual Machine 40
Retrieve Status Information About the Virtual Machine 40
Subcommands for the stat Command 41
Exit Codes 42
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