From your description, I assume that you created a new VM just now - although you don't explicitly say it. You are also not mentioning VMware version nor the exact Host version.
If so, how can the Compatibility Level be with version 8 of VMware? That is just wrong.
You are also running Kali from Downloads directory. It is far-fetched, but you are now risking to have a non-unique folder name ... like the ISO-file being the same as the Folder ... that shouldn't work at all, but since you have obscure problems, this doesn't seem completely an impossible problem. Typically, you would have a directory like "c:\VMs" and have all your VMs there with your own unique names - not derived directly from ISO-naming convention. Besides that you have one folder level too much - I know, the user interface is kind of obscure and so that happens - but you can correct that manually afterwards.
Besides those things, I have had Kali working briefly and there was nothing specific about that distro in VMware.
Original Message:
Sent: Jun 27, 2025 03:59 AM
From: Benjamin Gerty
Subject: Kali Linux VM not working.
Ive been using this kali vm for about 3-4 weeks and it randomly stopped working. everytime i try to open it, it freezes on this screen (the attatched screenshot is the specific screen). it generates 2-3 subfolders each time i attempt to launch, each containing .Ick files, sometimes a .Ick file is leftover while the other 2 subfolders delete as soon as i power off the VM.
have already tried simply deleting .Ick files, does not seem to work. If it has any relevance to resolving the issue, i have a log from one of the times it didnt let me launch, and the VM details are attached by screenshot. The .iso i used to build the VM is the one provided by kali linux pre-configured. I can attatch the log since it should be able to help, but i am unsure if the log contains any personal information/things that can breach my VMs security.