Select Use physical drive if you want to connect the virtual machines drive to a physical drive on the host computer. The vmware tools exe was seen inside the guest os and installation was as usual. Open the virtual machine settings editor (VM > Settings) and click Add to start the Add Hardware Wizard. Mounted the *.iso file to cd/dvd drive in the vmware console. These packages support the following operating systems: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and later Launch VMware Workstation on your PC and make sure that the disc with the downloaded.
Name: VMware-Tools-windows-11.2.0-16938113.zip Install Windows 10 Technical Preview in a Virtual Machine. Registered my name and downloaded vmware tools separately. Then after much research found this page:
I had the same problem in Vmware Workstation pro 16. Hopefully, this helped you fix your installation just as it did for me. If this doesn't work, you can try to manually download the VMWare Tools ISO, mount it in a virtual drive and install it. You will also see a new tab at the bottom of the screen prompting you to install the tools. Click on it to begin the VMware installation. The option to install VMware tools should no longer be grayed out. Once it has booted to the desktop, click on the menu at the top left corner and go to "Player > Manage > Install VMWare Tools".Click on "OK" to close the window, and Start the VM as usual.(Previously, it had the Windows ISO selected) The right pane should now have the option "Use Physical Drive > Auto Detect" enabled. Click on the "Add button" and select "CD/DVD" Drive and select finish.(Technically optional, but this is what fixed it for me. Repeat the above step to remove the Floppy Drive.To move CD ROM Drive to the top, highlight CD ROM Drive with the arrow key, and then press the + (plus sign) until CD ROM Drive is at the top of the list. In the BIOS menu, navigate to the 'Boot' section. configuration file, virtual disk file, NVRAM setting. In the remote console, when the VMware startup screen appears, wait for the BIOS menu to appear. Highlight the CD/Drive on the left sidebar under the Hardware tab and click on the remove button. When I go to export my VM I initially exported without nvram because it wasnt.Select the "Settings" option to edit the hardware settings.Open VMWare Workstation Player and right-click on the VM.
How to install/reinstall VMWare tools grayed out Even though I was doing this for Windows 10, this isn’t limited to Windows installations and should work regardless of the virtual operating system. For anyone facing this same issue with their VMware installation, here’s the solution in a pleasing format.