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Force removal of VMware Tools, Program Files, and Windows Services
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# This script will manually rip out all VMware Tools registry entries and files for Windows 2008-2019 | |
# Tested for 2019, 2016, and probably works on 2012 R2 after the 2016 fixes. | |
# This function pulls out the common ID used for most of the VMware registry entries along with the ID | |
# associated with the MSI for VMware Tools. | |
function Get-VMwareToolsInstallerID { | |
foreach ($item in $(Get-ChildItem Registry::HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products)) { | |
If ($item.GetValue('ProductName') -eq 'VMware Tools') { | |
return @{ | |
reg_id = $item.PSChildName; | |
msi_id = [Regex]::Match($item.GetValue('ProductIcon'), '(?<={)(.*?)(?=})') | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Value | |
} | |
} | |
} | |
} | |
$vmware_tools_ids = Get-VMwareToolsInstallerID | |
# Targets we can hit with the common registry ID from $vmware_tools_ids.reg_id | |
$reg_targets = @( | |
"Registry::HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Features\", | |
"Registry::HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\", | |
"HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Features\", | |
"HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products\", | |
"HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\" | |
) | |
$VMware_Tools_Directory = "C:\Program Files\VMware" | |
$VMware_Common_Directory = "C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware" | |
# Create an empty array to hold all the uninstallation targets and compose the entries into the target array | |
$targets = @() | |
If ($vmware_tools_ids) { | |
foreach ($item in $reg_targets) { | |
$targets += $item + $vmware_tools_ids.reg_id | |
} | |
# Add the MSI installer ID regkey | |
$targets += "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{$($vmware_tools_ids.msi_id)}" | |
} | |
# This is a bit of a shotgun approach, but if we are at a version less than 2016, add the Uninstaller entries we don't | |
# try to automatically determine. | |
If ([Environment]::OSVersion.Version.Major -lt 10) { | |
$targets += "HKCR:\CLSID\{D86ADE52-C4D9-4B98-AA0D-9B0C7F1EBBC8}" | |
$targets += "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{9709436B-5A41-4946-8BE7-2AA433CAF108}" | |
$targets += "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{FE2F6A2C-196E-4210-9C04-2B1BC21F07EF}" | |
} | |
# Add the VMware, Inc regkey | |
If (Test-Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.") { | |
$targets += "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc." | |
} | |
# Add the VMware Tools directory | |
If(Test-Path $VMware_Tools_Directory) { | |
$targets += $VMware_Tools_Directory | |
} | |
# Thanks to @Gadgetgeek2000 for pointing out that the script leaves some 500mb of extra artifacts on disk. | |
# This blob removes those. | |
If(Test-Path $VMware_Common_Directory) { | |
$targets += $VMware_Common_Directory | |
} | |
# Create a list of services to stop and remove | |
$services = Get-Service -DisplayName "VMware*" | |
$services += Get-Service -DisplayName "GISvc" | |
# Warn the user about what is about to happen | |
# Takes only y for an answer, bails otherwise. | |
Write-Host "The following registry keys, filesystem folders, and services will be deleted:" | |
If (!$targets -and !$services ) { | |
Write-Host "Nothing to do!" | |
} | |
Else { | |
$targets | |
$services | |
$user_confirmed = Read-Host "Continue (y/n)" | |
If ($user_confirmed -eq "y") { | |
# Stop all running VMware Services | |
$services | Stop-Service -Confirm:$false | |
# Cover for Remove-Service not existing in PowerShell versions < 6.0 | |
If (Get-Command Remove-Service -errorAction SilentlyContinue) { | |
$services | Remove-Service -Confirm:$false | |
} | |
Else { | |
foreach ($s in $services) { | |
sc.exe DELETE $($s.Name) | |
} | |
} | |
# Remove all the files that are listed in $targets | |
foreach ($item in $targets) { | |
If(Test-Path $item) { | |
Remove-Item -Path $item -Recurse | |
} | |
} | |
Write-Host "Done. Reboot to complete removal." | |
} | |
Else { | |
Write-Host "Failed to get user confirmation" | |
} | |
} |
Thanks, it was very useful in a migration from VMWare to Proxmox.
I was just looking at the same issue after I migrated from VMware to Hyper-V and I think I found the solution.
The MSI installer was throwing an error code 1603
after trying to launch the VM_LogStart
action so I:
- grabbed the path of the cached MSI file in
C:\Windows\Installer
, copied the MSI file - opened it in Orca and removed all references to
VM_LogStart
, saved - placed the installer back into
C:\Windows\Installer
and re-ran the uninstall action. - Uninstall went through nicely
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I'm sure someone can make this better, but my co-worker and I took this code and made a script to remove VMware tools from 300 domain servers remotely after migrating from on-prem to AWS. We also had issues deleting c:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools because eventlog and WMI services were running. We also removed the ask to continue prompts.
This script copies "removesvmware.ps1" and executes it on the target host.