From Win10 to Win11: Failed to connect pipe to virtual machine. Specified file not found

[N4N]

Hi guys.

 

I updated my host VMware Workstation 17.6.1 from Win10 to Win11.

 

Unfortunatelly, no one of my machines start after update and all fail with the error:

 

VMware Workstation cannot connect to the virtual machine. Make sure you have rights to run the program, access all directories the program uses, and access all directories for temporary files.

Failed to connect pipe to virtual machine: Impossibile trovare il file specificato.

 

Sequentially, I have:

rebooted the host

removed lck files and folders

cleaned from snapshots

executed vmware as administrator

moved the vm in other folder

reinstalled VMware 

 

But nothing seems to work.

I tried to create a new vm too but, after created an empty one, it doesn't start to begin the setup and fails with the same error.

 

Reading the vmware.log, I notice this:

2024-12-16T08:10:21.838Z In(05) vmx DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "C:\Users\nickn\AppData\Roaming\VMware\config.ini": The system cannot find the file specified.

 

and this

2024-12-16T08:10:22.128Z In(05) mks MKS-HookKeyboard: RegQueryValueEx(LowLevelHooksTimeout) failed: The system cannot find the file specified (2)

 

I don't know about the registry key but actually, the file config.ini is missing!

How can I recover or regenerate it?

 

I appreciate your help.

Nicola

[Dhairya Tomar]

N4N Ticket has been raised internally, relevant team is looking into the same.

In the meantime request you to retry clean installation using below steps-

1) Uninstall WS Pro/Player.
2) Go to this location - C:\ProgramData\VMware and delete the folders for VMware Workstation and VMware Player.
3) Go to this location - C:\Users\dtomar\AppData\Roaming\VMware and delete all the files inside
4) Go to this location - C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware and delete the folders for VMware Workstation and VMware Player.

5) Restart the Host machine, upgrade to the latest Workstation version 17.6.2 and let us know if the issue still persists.

[N4N]

Hi Dhairya.

Thank you for your response.

I followed your suggestions but, unfortunatelly, they were unsuccessful.

Also, I cannot found an updated log.

Do I have I to reinstall win11  by scratch? I hope not.

I appreciate your help.

Nicola

[Dhairya Tomar]

N4N I feel no need to reinstall Windows 11, once you can try below steps and confirm if the issue still exists-

1. Clean Uninstall Workstation Pro.

2. Please stop related services if any by "sc stop serviceName" in cmd with administrative with priviledge

sc stop VMUSBArbService

sc stop hcmon

sc stop vmusb

3. Remove drivers:

del C:\Windows\System32\drivers\hcmon.sys

del C:\Windows\System32\drivers\vmusb.sys

remove hcmon, vmusb from here C:\Windows\System32\DRVSTORE

4. Remove registry related to WS Pro:

reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc." /f

reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VMware, Inc." /f

5.

     a.Stop 'VMware USB Arbitration service' from services.msc if running.

     b.Delete below registry entries for

         i."VMUSBArbService from "Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VMUSBArbService"

         ii."Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vmusb"

     c.Delete same entries from CurrentControlSet001 if any.

6. Delete usb folders from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VMware\USB"

7. Delete hcmon and vmusb from  C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\hcmon & C:\Program Files\Common

        Files\VMware\Drivers\vmusb

8. Reboot your system and install WS Pro.

[N4N]

Hi Dhairya.

As you suggested, I stopped and removed services, cleaned registry and deleted related files, uninstalled and reinstalled WS Pro, but nothing new is happened.

If can help, launching WS in administrative mode I have these errors:

1) See ResampleDmo.DLL.png attached file

2) VMware Workstation cannot connect to the virtual machine. Make sure you have rights to run the program, access all directories the program uses, and access all directories for temporary files. The VMX process exited prematurely.

I hope in you :)

Nicola

[Dhairya Tomar]

N4N Did you restart the host before reinstalling WS 17.6.2?

Request you to recreate the issue and share the support bundle of any of the affected VM using menu option Help->Support->Collect Support Data.

[N4N]

Hi Dhairya.
I thank you for your support.

I resolved reinstalling Win10 😒.


Frankly, it is not clear to me whether Win11 supports hosting VMware Workstation Pro.

I first tried it with version 14 two years ago and went back to Win10.
I tried again now with 17 with the same epilogue.

I don't know if this is due to the configuration keeping the same settings as in Win10 without considering that something has to be adapted for Win11.

In any case, in my opinion, something is wrong because you cannot expect the user to have to spend hours and hours for an OS update that takes an hour.


Thanks again.
Nicola



Inviato da Outlook per Android<https: aka.ms aab9ysg>

[Morc001]

It was a waste of support's time bailing out and going back to Windows 10, instead of following through. Besides this is not a VMWare problem, searching for ResampleDmo.dll brings up many hits not only on the VMWare forum, but others affecting other software. Workstation 17 works fine on Windows 11, I'm using it. And since you reinstalled Windows 10 and not rolled back to it, you could've just given a go to a clean install of Windows 11. The solution is to install the Media Feature in Windows, which support should've known.

[RaSystemlord]

"Frankly, it is not clear to me whether Win11 supports hosting VMware Workstation Pro."

As for the comment above, I have a separate thread from some 10 days ago, "VMware and Windows 11", where I have tested VMware 17.5.2 with Windows 11 Pro 24H2, with Intel 13th gen, and with 5 different cases or OS's. It works fine if you follow the VMware prompts and do accordingly. Absolutely no hacking of Win 11 is required.

I don't know about other VMware versions or modified Windows 11 versions (modified for whatever reason or without any relevant reason) or badly Upgraded Win 11 (or if there is any other kind of Upgrade) or AMD Ryzen or bad Motherboards (whatever they might be) or Nested virtualization.

So, by default Win 11 is supported.

[James Lin]

FYI,

 
Reading the vmware.log, I notice this:
2024-12-16T08:10:21.838Z In(05) vmx DictionaryLoad: Cannot open file "C:\Users\nickn\AppData\Roaming\VMware\config.ini": The system cannot find the file specified.
 
and this
2024-12-16T08:10:22.128Z In(05) mks MKS-HookKeyboard: RegQueryValueEx(LowLevelHooksTimeout) failed: The system cannot find the file specified (2)

Those messages are normal and are not relevant.  Those are innocuous; that file and that registry key do not exist by default.

In the future, please provide full log files:

1. The UI log; its location is listed in the About dialog.
2. vmware.log from the VM's directory, if one is created.
3. mksSandbox.log from the VM's directory, if one is created.