Hi there,
Working on my Win2K16 VMware template. Been a bit painful. I installed VMware Tools and restarted but still saw this in the vSphere Web Client.
Odd. I checked the running services and there was only one and it was something about alias. I knew I installed the tools and restarted so WTF. Nothing in Google.
So, I have had some issues with Win2K16, and it has been a long day. So I uninstalled the tools, and restart. But this time, when I install the tools, I click on setup64 and do the Run as Admin, and before I restart my VMware Tools message is gone. After the restart, I check to see what VMware services are installed.
So there is three instead of 1. And the message about VMware Tools not installed is gone. So all good. But, now I have to remember that for Win2K16 I need to install VMware Tools using the Run as Admin. I should mention I am in fact working as Administrator right now too.
Not sure what changed.
Michael
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Notes from MWhite 
Thank you so much, this fix worked like a charm.
Thanks for this. Worked for me too but I needed to copy the files to the desktop (even though I’m logged in as the local admin user) before I could get it to work. Complete uninstall, reboot, copy files to desktop, run setup64 as admin.
The “Run as administrator” trick… nice catch, thanks for the hint.
Just ran into this myself. Thank you!
Thanks! that did the trick for me too.
Thanks!!
That worked perfectly! Very odd only seeing a couple VMware services but not VMware Tools Service.
Worked like a charm, damn UAC, thanks for posting this!
Fresh install, copied the VM Tools install files to the desktop, ran as administrator — still didn’t install the services. Had to uninstall, reboot, reinstall and finally it worked. Maybe reboot twice on initial installs gets this working the first time?
Good to know – thanks!
Hello – I had the same issue. After uninstalling and reinstalling (using run-as administrator) it still reported that the vmware tools were not installed. This is in VCenter 6.5. I ended up having to log out of vcenter and log back in again before the vmware tools error went away.
Good to know, and certainly odd – thanks.
Michael
Hi Guys,
This was still the case for me with new servers and latest versions of vSphere 6.5 when deploying a Windows 2016 VM. My situation was a tad different in the sense that even though VMware tools had installed, the “VMware Tools” service was not listed in the services console. Following your guys’ instruction, I simply re-mounted the VMware Tools installer ISO again and ran setup by right clicking setup64 and selecting “run as administrator” and did a “repair installation”; I didn’t remove the existing installation nor reboot. After the repair installation completed, I saw the “VMware Tools” service was now listed in the services console and it was started so I went back to the vSphere web client and clicked the little refresh button towards the top by the username and voila; the warning message went away and VMware tools was reporting the proper information to the vSphere web client.
Just wanted to share my experience. Thanks again for all of the insight and take care!
Thanks for sharing, good to know.
Michael
I had the same problem testing Windows 2019 (right click setup64 and run as administrator). I had to uninstall, reboot and reinstall to fix it
Very good to know, thanks!
Michael
I had 3 servers, all 2019 imaged from the same image. 1 installed with no issue. the other 2 wouldn’t install for the life of me. I ended up going to the mounted disk under \program files\VMware\VMware tools\x64 and run VMwareToolsUpgrader (as administrator) and it installed with no issue. There was no previous installs.
Very strange
Thanks for sharing Jeff. I have no Win2019 in my lab yet. but hopefully your info will help anyone else who has an issue.
Michael