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VMware Workstation 16 on Win7

Alpis

By Alpis
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Alpis

Alpis

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VMware just released Workstation 16, although it won't support Windows 7 systems, would there be any way to manipulate the installer to get it working on 7 or would it work by using the same trick as used to get Workstation 11/12 on Vista? I'm trying that right now.

Edited by Tripredacus
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win32

win32

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Is there any non-UWP/DX12 software that really cannot run on W7? The only missing win32 API function that I've seen called is user32!SetCoalescableTimer by the Office 2019 installer and it should be trivial to add.

Vegas Pro 17 says in its system requirements that it needs Windows 10 but the installer says that it requires Windows 7/8. The Whatsapp desktop application says that it needs Windows 8 but runs on 7. Probably just people taking W7 EOS too seriously, even though Windows 8 as a client OS had its EOS in 2016.

Mind you, it's quite difficult to trick VMware installers (unless you can get the OS to effectively become NT 6.2, which may cause web browsers to freeze). So that Workstation 11/12 method should work.

Edited by win32
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asdf2345

asdf2345

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32 minutes ago, win32 said:

Is there any non-UWP/DX12 software that really cannot run on W7? The only missing win32 API function that I've seen called is user32!SetCoalescableTimer by the Office 2019 installer and it should be trivial to add.

Vegas Pro 17 says in its system requirements that it needs Windows 10 but the installer says that it requires Windows 7/8. The Whatsapp desktop application says that it needs Windows 8 but runs on 7. Probably just people taking W7 EOS too seriously, even though Windows 8 as a client OS had its EOS in 2016.

Mind you, it's quite difficult to trick VMware installers (unless you can get the OS to effectively become NT 6.2, which may cause web browsers to freeze). So that Workstation 11/12 method should work.

It's actually quite trivial to trick it. I used Application Verifier to get the .exe to extract the .msi, which I backed up, and removed the check for Windows 7 using Orca. It works until it tries installing vmx driver, that step instantly fails and the installer rolls back all the progress.

I extracted the .msi, and I've tried looking to see what causes the issue, the .inf is good as it's the exact same as 15.5.6 besides the version. One dll, vmx86.dll has a system version of 6.2, but setting it to 6.1 did nothing, I've also checked it with Dependency Walker, and saw Windows 7 has all the needed functions. I checked vmx86ver.dll, and that has no system version, and in Dependency Walker, the only missing function is "_except_handler4_common" in vcruntime140.dll, but it still should install and not instantly fail. I didn't look at vmx86.cat, but that shouldn't change anything.

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asdf2345

asdf2345

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30 minutes ago, asdf2345 said:

It's actually quite trivial to trick it. I used Application Verifier to get the .exe to extract the .msi, which I backed up, and removed the check for Windows 7 using Orca. It works until it tries installing vmx driver, that step instantly fails and the installer rolls back all the progress.

I extracted the .msi, and I've tried looking to see what causes the issue, the .inf is good as it's the exact same as 15.5.6 besides the version. One dll, vmx86.dll has a system version of 6.2, but setting it to 6.1 did nothing, I've also checked it with Dependency Walker, and saw Windows 7 has all the needed functions. I checked vmx86ver.dll, and that has no system version, and in Dependency Walker, the only missing function is "_except_handler4_common" in vcruntime140.dll, but it still should install and not instantly fail. I didn't look at vmx86.cat, but that shouldn't change anything.

I think I've entirely f***ed installing VMware on my Server 2008 R2 install (Basically Windows 7 with less bloat) I've tried installing VMware 14, and VMware 12, and both do not work anymore.

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win32

win32

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8 hours ago, asdf2345 said:

I extracted the .msi, and I've tried looking to see what causes the issue, the .inf is good as it's the exact same as 15.5.6 besides the version. One dll, vmx86.dll has a system version of 6.2, but setting it to 6.1 did nothing, I've also checked it with Dependency Walker, and saw Windows 7 has all the needed functions. I checked vmx86ver.dll, and that has no system version, and in Dependency Walker, the only missing function is "_except_handler4_common" in vcruntime140.dll, but it still should install and not instantly fail. I didn't look at vmx86.cat, but that shouldn't change anything.

How about the status of vmx86.sys?

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win32

win32

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2 hours ago, asdf2345 said:

Oh, I meant vmx86.sys instead of vmx86.dll

oh, it could be something like this:

Maybe it picks up on the OS version and then refuses to load if it sees the wrong one.

First it was Qt 5.10+ (Vista), allegedly user mode components of later NVIDIA drivers (Vista), AMD drivers (Windows 8) as well as assorted miscellaneous drivers (Windows 2000). I think we really do need a way to make the OS universally identify as a later one, The way to do this for 2000 is probably quite simple, but for all x64 operating systems post-Longhorn reset (including XP x64), I'm not sure yet. or maybe they made the value little-endian? I'll look into that.

Edited by win32
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Jaguarek62

Jaguarek62

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14 minutes ago, asdf2345 said:

Got a bit further by abandoning the plan of getting the installer working, and deciding to replace all VMware 15.5.6 files on a 7 install with 16.x files.

Looks like I will need some sort of Windows 7 extended kernel

ScreenShot_20200920062749.png

back in april this year I used windows 7 for a month. Vmware 20h1 was announced and it successfully installed on windows 7. Maybe you can try and mod that one. Anyway it may sound rude, but I'm really glad that vmware does still support Windows 8.1. I thought that developers would abandon it the same way as they did with Windows Vista

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Jaguarek62

Jaguarek62

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38 minutes ago, asdf2345 said:

I'd need to know when that was said, and I'd need a version archive of the 20h1 releases.

it was back in february (my best guess). and the exact build was: "16.0.0 20H1 tech preview 15679048 2020-02-26 VMware-workstation-full-e.x.p-15679048.exe"

the problem is that their website only lets you download the 20h2 build which no longer supports Windows 7

 

Edit: This is what happens if I try to reach the link for the file: https://prnt.sc/ukixhq

Edit 2: Sorry for this many edits, but I've just found out that I actually archived the build. It has expiration though (41 days remaining). I can share the file if you want. https://prnt.sc/ukj000

Edited by Jaguarek62
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asdf2345

asdf2345

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45 minutes ago, Jaguarek62 said:

it was back in february (my best guess). and the exact build was: "16.0.0 20H1 tech preview 15679048 2020-02-26 VMware-workstation-full-e.x.p-15679048.exe"

the problem is that their website only lets you download the 20h2 build which no longer supports Windows 7

 

Edit: This is what happens if I try to reach the link for the file: https://prnt.sc/ukixhq

Edit 2: Sorry for this many edits, but I've just found out that I actually archived the build. It has expiration though (41 days remaining). I can share the file if you want. https://prnt.sc/ukj000

Try launching a VM, and see if you have any other builds, or can find any other builds

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asdf2345

asdf2345

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10 minutes ago, asdf2345 said:

Try launching a VM, and see if you have any other builds, or can find any other builds

Got a download for it

https://web.archive.org/web/20200307070724/https://download3.vmware.com/software/wkst/file/VMware-workstation-full-e.x.p-15679048.exe

Also have a download for a older 20H2 build that I'll try first

https://download3.vmware.com/software/wkst/file/VMware-workstation-full-e.x.p-16227267.exe

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