Vmware workstation uninstaller linux

How to Uninstall VMware Workstation in Windows and Linux

If you no longer need VMware, you might as well uninstall it to free up the space it takes. Additionally, you may need to uninstall it if you encounter any issues while using the app.

This process is very quick to perform. However, due to issues like power failure or conflicts from other applications, such as antivirus, you may not be able to uninstall the VMware.

Uninstalling VMware on Windows

The installation folder of older VMware versions included an uninstall.exe file that you could run to uninstall it. However, for the latest versions, you need to use the app settings or programs and features. You can also use a PowerShell cmdlet to uninstall this application.

If you can’t completely uninstall the program using these methods, you need to manually remove all its files and registry entries.

Using Control Panel

The traditional way of uninstalling an application is through the Programs and Features tool included in the Control Panel. Here’s how you can use it to uninstall VMware:

1. Open Run by pressing Win + R.
2. Type appwiz.cpl and press Enter to open the Control Panel’s Programs and Features page.
3. Search for and select VMware Workstation or VMware Player and click on Change.
   
4. Select Next and then Remove.
   
5. Check the option you need to save and click Next.

Through App Settings

Windows 8 introduced the Settings app as an alternative for the Control Panel. You can use its App Settings to uninstall VMware on Windows 10 and later versions. To do so,

1. Open Run.
2. Enter ms-settings:appsfeatures to open the App Settings.
3. Scroll down and search for VMware workstation or VMware Player.
4. Select on it or click on the triple-dot icon next to it and choose Modify. You will be able to select Uninstall on older versions.
5. Select Next and then Remove.
6. Check the option you need to save and click Next.

With Windows PowerShell

You can also use the Uninstall-Package PowerShell cmdlet to uninstall your apps. Here’s how you can use it to remove VMware:

1. Open Run.
2. Type powershell and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open the Elevated Windows PowerShell.
3. Enter the following command:
   Get-Package -Name «VMware Workstation*» | Uninstall-Package
   Replace Workstation with Player if you want to remove this app instead.
4. Type Y and press Enter if prompted.

Directly Using the Uninstaller/Modify Script

It is also possible to directly run a shortcut for the uninstaller wizard for VMware. First, you need to figure out what the script is through the Registry Editor and then run it. Here are the necessary steps for the complete process:

1. Open Run and enter regedit to open the Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
3. This key is for VMware Workstation 16.x. Other versions may use a separate key. To get there,
   • Go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\
   • Select each key inside Uninstall and check the value of the DisplayName entry. It should show VMware Workstation or VMware Player.
     
4. Double-click on ModifyPath and copy its Value data. For older versions, you need to copy the value of UninstallString.
   
5. Open Run and paste the ModifyPath value.
6. Replace /l with /x, then press Enter. For example, if the script in ModifyPath is msiexec.exe /l , you need to enter msiexec.exe /x
   
7. Confirm your choice and follow the onscreen instructions.

Manually Remove VMware Files

If the above uninstallation processes fail, you won’t be able to uninstall the application properly. Then, you also can’t install VMware again on your system due to the persisting files.

In such cases, you need to manually remove the VMware files to clean up the incomplete uninstallation and properly remove the app from your PC.

First, log in with an administrator account and temporarily disable your antivirus and firewall. Then, follow the steps below one by one to manually remove VMware from your system:

Stop VMware Services

1. Open Run and enter services.msc to open Services app.
2. Search for all services starting with VMware.

Uninstall VMware Devices

1. Open Run and enter devmgmt.msc to open the Device Manager.
2. Select View >Show hidden devices.

Expand Network Adapters.

Right-click on the devices starting with VMware and select Uninstall device >Uninstall.

Then, open Run and enter ncpa.cpl to open Network Connections.

Right-click on a network and select Properties.

Select VMware Bridge Protocol and click Uninstall.

Click OK after uninstalling it. Then, do the same for other networks.

Delete VMware Folders and Files

1. Press Win + E to open File Explorer.
2. Navigate to C:\Program Files\ or C:\Program Files(X86)\ and delete the folder VMware.

Select Yes to provide admin permissions.

Now, open Run and enter %programdata%

On the ProgramData folder, delete VMware.

Then, open Run and enter %windir%\system32 to navigate to this directory.

Delete the following files if available:

• vmnat.exe
• vmnetbridge.exe
• VMNetDHCP.exe
• vmnetdhcp.leases
• vmxw2ksetup.dll
• vnetprobe.exe
• vnetprobelib.dll
• vnetinst.dll
• vnetlib.dll
• vnetlib.exe

Then open the drivers folder inside System32 and delete these files if present:

• vmnet.sys
• vmnetx.sys
• VMparport.sys
• vmx86.sys
• vmnetadapter.sys
• vmnetbridge.sys
• vmnetuserif.sys
• hcmon.sys
• vmusb.sys

Delete VMware Users and Groups

1. Open Run and enter lusrmgr.msc to open Local Users and Groups Manager.
2. Double-click on Users and look for __vmware_user__.
3. If it’s there, right-click on it and select Delete >Yes.
4. Then, go to Groups and look for __vmware__.
5. Use a similar way to delete it as well.

Delete VMware Registries

1. Open the Registry Editor
2. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\ and select the first key within Products.
3. Check its Product Name.
4. If it’s not VMware Workstation or Player, press the down arrow key to check for the next key inside Products.
   
5. Use steps 3 and 4 to find out the key for VMware and note it down. The key is the folder inside Products.
6. Right-click on this key and select Delete >Yes to remove it.
   

Then, navigate to Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Features\ and delete this key as well. For example, the key may be Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Features\1F78C6D970E2D8B4998D0D20846FD255

Now, delete the following keys as well:

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Features\
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\
• HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\UpgradeCodes\3F935F414A4C79542AD9C8D157A3CC39
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VMware, Inc.\VMware Workstation
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Applications\vmware.exe
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.

Then, navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\

Select each key inside Uninstall and check the value of the DisplayName entry.

If it shows VMware Workstation or VMware Player, delete the key altogether.

Uninstalling VMware on Linux

On a Command line-based system like Linux, you can easily use some commands to uninstall VMware on your computer.

Here, we use the commands for the Ubuntu Linux system. Other distros use different commands, so you need to search for and use those accordingly.

Using the Uninstaller

The default way of uninstalling VMware on Linux is by using the uninstaller script. Here’s how you can do so:

1. Open the Terminal.
2. Enter the following command depending on whether you want to remove VMware Workstation or VMware Player:
   • sudo vmware-installer -u vmware-player
   • sudo vmware-installer -u vmware-workstation
3. You may also need to use the full path for vmware-installer, i.e., /usr/bin/vmware-installer

Manually Uninstalling VMware

If uninstalling VMware using the uninstaller fails, you need to manually remove all of its files. To do so,

1. Open the Terminal.
2. Enter the command below to stop VMware services and processes:
   /etc/init.d/vmware stop
   
3. Move the VMware libraries to /tmp using the commands:
   • uname -r (to check the kernel version)
   • cd /lib/modules//misc (replace with your kernel version)
   • mv vm* /tmp
     
4. Then, you need to unload the kernel modules,
   • rmmod vmnet.o
   • rmmod vmmon.o
   • rmmod vmci.o
   • rmmod vmblock.o
   • rmmod vmppuser.o
5. Now, remove the VMware logon scripts using the commands:
   • rm /etc/rc2.d/*vmware*
   • rm /etc/rc3.d/*vmware*
   • rm /etc/rc5.d/*vmware*
   • rm /etc/rc6.d/*vmware*
     

• rm -rf /etc/vmware*
• rm /usr/bin/vmware-usbarbitrator
• rm /usr/bin/vmnet*
• rm -r /usr/lib/vmware*
• rm -r /usr/share/doc/vmware*

Abhishek Silwal is an Electronics Engineer and a technical writer at TechNewsToday. He specializes in troubleshooting a wide range of computer-related issues. His educational background in Electronics Engineering has given him a solid foundation in understanding of computers. He is also proficient in several programming languages and has worked on various robotics projects. Even in his early days, he used to tinker with various computer components, both hardware, and software, to satiate his curiosity. This experience has given him a breadth of experience that goes beyond his educational qualification. Abhishek has been writing articles on dealing with varieties of technical issues and performing specific tasks, especially on a Windows machine. He strives to create comprehensive guides on fixing many system and hardware issues and help others solve their problems. You can contact him at abhisheksilwal@technewtoday.com

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How to Uninstall VMware Workstation 14/15 Pro on Debian 9.9

Last Updated: June 18, 2022 | VMware Workstation | Tolga Bagci

In this article, we will examine the steps to delete VMware Workstation 14/15 Pro on Linux / Debian 9.9 operating system.

How to Uninstall VMware Workstation/Player 14/15 on Debian 9

The VMware Workstation virtualization program on a Windows operating system is removed through the Windows Setup Wizard.

However, the bundle installer is used to uninstall VMware from a Linux system. If you uninstall VMware and do not save the configuration files, the Shared VMs library will also be deleted.

Later, when you install it again, your virtual machines will not appear. In the previous article, we installed the VMware 14/15 Pro version on the Debian operating system.

In this article, we will remove VMware Workstation from Linux, and we will delete its entire configuration.

How to Remove VMware Workstation from Debian

To completely delete VMware from Linux, follow the steps below.

Run Terminal on the desktop and allow Root access with the su command. Then, follow the command below to remove the virtual pc program.

sudo vmware-installer -u vmware-workstationCopy

After you open the GUI screen, if you want to delete the virtual machine configurations, select No and click the Next button.

Wait while it is removing VM software 14/15 Pro on Debian 9.9…

The virtual machine program has been successfully removed from the system and click the Close button to close the window.

Open the Start menu and type the name of the program in the search box and check that the Workstation program removed from the system as in the following window.

How to Delete VMware Software ⇒ Video

You can watch the video below to delete/remove the virtualization program from your Linux computer step by step, and you can also subscribe to our YouTube channel to support us.

Final Word

In this article, we have removed the Workstation virtualization program from the Linux operating system. You can also review the removal guide published by the manufacturer. Thanks for following us!

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TolgaBagci

Hello, I’m Tolga! I am a computer specialist who has been specializing in computer technologies for about 20 years. I provide solutions to problems encountered in many areas such as hardware, system, network, virtualization, server systems, and operating systems, and create relevant content on my website by explaining how to solve these problems. My goal is to be a reliable source of expert, quality, and trustworthy solutions for your computer problems. By following innovations and using the latest technologies, I aim to be successful in my job and provide you with the best service. Don’t hesitate to contact me for any questions or curiosity about technology. Have a nice day, stay up to date 🙂

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