VMWare Workstation Pro 17.6.0 has taskbar icons that lose their image (and other graphic oddities)

[Michael Hockstein]

I recently updated my VMWare workstation pro from v17.5.something to v17.6.0. The host (Alienware Aurora R15, i9-a3900KF) runs on a Windows 11 Pro desktop version 23H2. The host has an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (with up-to-date drivers). I have a Windows 11 (same version as the host) guest that runs on the Workstation Pro host.

I noticed a couple of odd things (that I have as yet to figure out how to repro). First, if I return to the running VM guest after my host machine has hibernated, sometimes the icons in the VMs taskbar lose their graphic image (this occurs in the system bar too). I have to reboot to correct the problem (this works reproducibly). I can hover over the imageless icon and have seen the text of the icon but I can't reliably click on the icon to get the app to run. Also, I have seen comments elsewhere about screen "tearing" when dragging a window. I don't have exactly that, rather, when I hover on something that may have a context menu, what pops up is pixelated.

Has anyone encountered the issue I have described with the taskbar and system tray icons that lose their images?

[Mats Persson]

Hi Michael!

Have you found a solution to this issue yet?

I have had similar issues with the images dissapearing from the taskbar and then sometimes return when you hover over them (but not every time). The VM would also freeze when left for a while with no interaction. I use these VMs for work every day and they are crucial to me, so I had to find a solution rather fast. Since you cannot downgrade the VMs I could not go back to the version I was running before (17.0.0). But last night I think I found the solution for me. I had the setting "Accelerate 3D graphics" enabled under the Display settings. I tried disabling this and now the VMs seem stable. After a couple of hours of work I am pretty confident I have found the issue since earlier it was coming after 5-20 minutes.
I guess something is not working as it should (or not compatible with my hardware/software setup) regarding 3D acceleration. I run Windows 10 as Host, Windows 11 as Client and a Geforce RTX 3070 as GPU. For me it does not matter that I cannot use 3D acceleration since I don't have any use for 3D graphics in my line of work.

/Mats