Problem Installing VMware Tools in Windows 98 VM

Since upgrading to VMware Fusion 2 a few months ago, I’ve been slowly opening all of my VMs which causes VMware to prompt me to upgrade them to the new version.  But like anytime you upgrade to a new version of desktop VMware products, VMware Tools needs to be upgraded (I remember similar behavior when I used to use VMware Workstation).  For some reason, I always have a difficult time installing or upgrading VMware Tools in Windows 98.  I know I’ve done it before because in this particular case, the software was already installed.  But when you tell VMware to install the VMware Tools in Windows 98, a CD is inserted but it shows up as an Audio CD.  I usually mess around with it for a little bit then decide it’s not worth messing with and move on.

This morning I already had a Windows XP VM open, but I wanted to look at something in Windows 98.  When I started Windows 98, it said it could not connect to the CD drive (because Windows XP was using it) so I said ok and it booted up.  Since the CD drive was not available, I thought I’d try the VMware Tools again and sure enough the software installed.  So for whatever reason, it is hard to install VMware Tools in 98 if the actual CD drive is connected.  Next time I’ll know to disconnect the drive  before trying to install the VMware Tools (which installs from a CD image).

Leave a Reply