vMWARE 12 (and newer) – Incompatible with Windows 10 1903?

Topic

New Reply

Since upgrading to Windows 10 (Version 1903) I am unable to access Windows 10 Insider from within my VMware V12.5.9 virtual machine.  Initially, Windows Insider opens and I am able to log in, and then about 3-5 minutes later Windows 10 Insider freezes, and about 30 seconds later  the parts of VMware dedicated to the open virtual machine also freeze.  This results in an inability to pause, suspend, shut down or restart the guest OS (Windows Insider).  The only way to resolve the issue is to reboot the (Host) desktop PC.

Occasionally, VMware produces an error window indicating that “VMware workstation and Device/Credential Guard are not compatible …” and provides a link for further information.  The link suggests that this can be resolved by preventing Hyper-V from running (however, in my case, hyper-V is not enabled).

I have been testing Windows using the Insider program from within VMware for several years, and would like to continue doing so.  I might mention that the incompatibility issue referred to is present in the latest version of VMware (V15) according to reports elsewhere on the Web.

Any suggestions?

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

Reply | Quote

Replies

I’m running vmware 15.1 –  Guest 1903, build 18362.1 and just updated to 18362.175

My host is 1903 18362.145. I just fired up the vm (haven’t run it in some time) and had youtube videos running for about 20 minutes. Haven’t had any issues yet.

Reply | Quote

Windows components which use hyper-v prevent virtualbox guests from starting in 1903.  The new sandbox feature, in particular, uses hyper-v, and hyper-v components remain active even after you’ve turned the sandbox off again.  I suspect that this problem would affect vmware as well.

I did the following to get virtualbox guests working.  YMMV, but it’s worth a shot with vmware if you don’t find a better idea.

First, in the Turn Windows features on or off panel, turn off everything which uses hyper-v, including the hyper-v feature, the new windows sandbox, and everything with “guard” in the name.  If you find anything to turn off, you’ll probably have to reboot. Then, in an elevated cmd window, type:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

Then reboot (again) and try your vmware tests.  If you want to turn hyper-v stuff back on, you can use:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype Auto

It’s possible that turning the hyper-v hypervisor stuff off with the bcdedit command is sufficient by itself (i.e. you don’t have to turn components off) but I haven’t gotten around to trying that.

If you’ve never had a hyper-v-related component turned on, then never mind   But please let us know what you find.

1 user thanked author for this post.

petesmst

Reply | Quote

@anonymous:  Many thanks (Sorry for late response, but I did not get an email notification of your reply, despite checking “Notify me …”

I’ll try what you suggest, but note that this is a major issue reported within VMware circles (incompatibility with Windows 1903).  It is reported that Microsoft and VMware are working together to find a solution; and that it will (eventually) be corrected via a patch.

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

Reply | Quote

@cyberSAR  Thanks.  Initially I was also able to run my Windows 1903 (Insider) VM quite normally within my host Windows 1903.  Two or three days later, all started out OK, and then about three minutes into use, the VM froze.  Now, VMware simply refuses to fire up any VM and posts the error window “VMware workstation and Device/Credential Guard are not compatible …”  The same issue is being reported by users of VMware 15.1

 

I will try the solution suggested by @anonymous in the previous post #1850010 and will report back.

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

Reply | Quote

[petesmst]

@anonymous: I tried using only

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

It worked! Many thanks.

Windows 10 Insider Preview 18922.1000 (rs_prerelease) is currently downloading into the OS in the VM.

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 10 months ago by petesmst.

Reply | Quote

Great!  Thanks for letting us know.  The Windows Hypervisor Platform feature is supposed to provide an api allowing virtualization software like vmware and virtualbox to run in a hyper-v environment.  That doesn’t work (for me) with virtualbox 6.0.8 but it’s possible it might work with recent releases of vmware (if you’re in an experimental mood).

There is also a Virtual Machine Platform feature in 1903 and (I think) 1809.  I’m darned if I can find any documentation for it though.

MS appears to be using hyper-v technology for more and more (containers, security, the new sandbox, wsl2, who knows what else) so lots of vmware and virtualbox users will be running into this.

Reply | Quote

I have two batch files I use to switch turn off or on hypervisorlaunchtype.

When my 1903 upgrade failed I wondered if this could be it. Thank you for confirming!!

P.S.
I have VMware Workstation and VirtualBox both on my machine and to get either to work requires bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off .

If I want to play with Win10 Hyper-V I have to set it back to auto.

Reply | Quote

i have tried following and work great (from anonymous)

First, in the Turn Windows features on or off panel, turn off everything which uses hyper-v, including the hyper-v feature, the new windows sandbox, and everything with “guard” in the name.  If you find anything to turn off, you’ll probably have to reboot. Then, in an elevated cmd window, type:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

great thanks

Reply | Quote

I’m still not having any luck

Running VMWare Workstation 12.5 – can’t check the exact build number because it won’t run any more.

I’m running Windows 10 1903 build 18362.418.  I was running my VM’s happily about a week ago and suddenly, I’m getting the error “vmware workstation cannot run on windows” – and that’s it… the message (Windows notification) slides out of view and I can get no further.

I’ve tried all the suggestions above.  Does anyone have anything more to add – please?

Reply | Quote

Did you try uninstalling the latest update? You should still be within the 10 days for rollback (but don’t wait too long).

Reply | Quote

PKCano wrote:

Did you try uninstalling the latest update? You should still be within the 10 days for rollback (but don’t wait too long).

And after you roll it back, install a current build of VMware Workstation (15.5.0 Build 14665864 is the current stable release).

You can’t (reasonably) expect the latest build of Windows 10 to play well with an ancient version of another manufacturer’s hypervisor – or vice-versa.

Reply | Quote

“You can’t (reasonably) expect the latest build of Windows 10 to play well with an ancient version of another manufacturer’s hypervisor – or vice-versa.”

Yes, it should! Ancient versions that were made for the Windows of their time must still run with any other Windows updates that are made later. They are required to be backwards compatible.

And precisely why not? Is the concept of backwards compatibility out of the window? Any updates to the Windows platform HAVE to be compatible with all the windows software that came before it.

A Windows OS from 2019 MUST be able to run any Windows software made for earlier versions of the OS.

Are you suggesting that Windows uses have to get used to having Microsoft rendering all their windows software useless whenever Microsoft feels like it? I don’t think so.

If Microsoft makes upgrades to Windows, and new features are introduced, such features CANNOT break compatibility with previous software the users ALREADY have and paid for. The old software MUST continue to work, even though not taking advantage of the full functionality available with the Windows upgrades until newer versions of the SAME product get released to take advantage of them.
Upgrading Windows to break compatibility with previous software is simply unacceptable.

Reply | Quote

I believe reality speaks differently.
But there seems to be a workaround in this case,

1 user thanked author for this post.

jabeattyauditor

Reply | Quote

[petesmst]

See reply #1861126 above. This “work-around” worked fine until KB4517389 arrived. Versions prior to vMWare 15 no-longer work with the latest version of Windows 1903. If you are “happy” to operate only 1 VM at a time, VMware Workstation 15 Player (free for non-commercial use) works just fine.

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by petesmst. Reason: Corrected typos
• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by petesmst.

1 user thanked author for this post.

woody

Reply | Quote

[PKCano]

I am not sure if posting this is in violation of any Ask Woody rules, but Office Watch is a free site, so I believe it is OK to post the following extract from the Latest Office Watch news letter:

Link to source:  https://office-watch.com/2019/october-2019-security-updates-for-microsoft-office/

“VMWare Workstation v14 and before now don’t work with Windows 10 getting the error “”VMware Workstation Pro can’t run on Windows”. The culprit is a Windows patch KB4517211 which lists many fixes but is an incomplete list.  The KB article it doesn’t mention that VMWare Workstation has been added to the Windows Compatibility block list.

Continue at the source.

[Thanks for the heads up. Normally we don’t quote articles in their entirety,  but post enough information to summarize the article, and encourage folks to go look if they’re interested. In this case, it’s very interesting (at least to me)! See my comments on the main blog page.]

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by PKCano.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by petesmst. Reason: Added source Link
• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by woody.

Reply | Quote

Thanks, petesmst!  The previous fixes (bcdedit, etc.) did not work, but office-watch’s sysmain.sdb retrograde did work.  Apparently.  So far.  Using VM 12.5.9 build-7535481 on Win 10 Pro 1903.18362.418.

Reply | Quote

Glad you have found a solution!

Since placing my original post here, the previous fixes (bcdedit, etc.) no-longer work for me, too. I suspect that a recent Windows Update put paid to that.

The latest Version 15 VMWare Workstation Player (free for home use only) works just fine, provided you only need t run one VM at a time (which is my situation).

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

Reply | Quote

An update to this issue with a simple solution:

“Shut down VMWare Workstation then head over to C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation and scroll down to vmware.exe

Rename the program, a single character will do. vmware1.exe vmwareA.exe – whatever you like. Then update any shortcuts to the program. Right-click on the renamed file and choose Pin to Start. Restart Workstation from the renamed .EXE and it works normally again.”

Taken from “Office Watch” here:  https://office-watch.com/2019/get-vmware-workstation-working-again-on-windows-10/?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ow

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

Reply | Quote

I just wanted to add to this discussion with my experience  being able to keep running vmware workstation 12 Pro (version 12.5.9) after upgrading to Windows 10 2004.

When Windows 10 prompted to install the update to release 2004 I was warned it could not proceed due to the incompatibility of Vmware. I browsed around and followed the advice to change the hyper-v settings but that didn’t do it for me.

Today I succesfully ran the upgrade by doing this:
– When the windows installer complained about vmware, I renamed the vmware installation directory. This fooled the windows updater and it was able to continue.
– While installing the windows update I renamed the vmware folder back and started vmware workstation (with the hope that dlls and exe’s in use can’t be modified or deleted).
– After upgrading windows I was able to run vmware workstation 12 Pro. Windows gives a warning message though. While I was reading the message deciding what to do, the main window of wmware appeared anyways. I was able to start my virtual machines. I checked whether it has networking capabilities and everything seems fine. The virtual network drivers apparently survived the windows update.

Hope this helps other people out there that would like to keep using their older vmware workstation pro software.

Reply | Quote

Uninstall vmware 12. Upgrade to windows 1909. Diable Hiper-V from windows features. Reinstall beware 12.

For me, it works!!

Reply | Quote