VMWorkstation installs but will not run on Windows 11 23H2

[Edward Waszkowski]

I have successfully run many different versions of VMWorkstation on Windows 10, but I recently received a new corporate laptop running Windows 11 Enterprise 23H2. I had to reinstall all of my programs and I successfully installed VMware VCenter converter standalone 9.0.0 and it works much better than any previous version.  Then, I installed VMWare Workstation Pro 25H2 and the installation went fine, but when I try to start the app, I get the following error:

vmware.exe - Application Error
The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000007b). Click OK to close the application.

I thought it might just be the new version of VMWare Workstation, but I tried 3 previous versions, including 17.6.4 and 17.0.2 which both worked before previously on my Windows 10 laptop.  All versions install but I get the same error.

I followed many threads and disabled all the Windows Hyper-V services and I still get this error.

I don't know which is the chicken or the egg, but I cannot get any of the VMWare services to run either. (VMWare Authorization Service, VMWare Autostart Service, VMware DHCP Service, VMWare NAT Service) all crap out with Error: 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

PLEASE HELP.

[Edward Waszkowski]

SOLVED: I had to install all of the Visual Studio .NET Visual-C runtimes and then VMWare Workstation now runs!

Here is the youTube video of what I did (ie: STEP 2 solved my problem) ==> https://youtu.be/O1CkyEogN3c

[RaSystemlord]

Not sure how much this helps, but ...

Running VMware 17.5.2 on default Windows 11 Pro, requires no fiddling with any of those setups that you mention. I would expect the same thing to be true with those VMware versions that you mention. l would look for what your "corporate" does, preventing VMware to run. Why does your "corporate" use over 2 year-old Windows?

However, I have no idea what the below means:

"... but I recently received a new corporate laptop running Windows 11 Enterprise 23H2. I had to reinstall all of my programs and I successfully installed VMware VCenter converter standalone 9.0.0 and it works much better than any previous version.  Then, I installed VMWare Workstation Pro 25H2 and the installation went fine ..."

If you have a new laptop what does "Reinstall all my programs" mean? Of course you need to INSTALL everything on a new laptop. Also, what does VMware VCenter mean in terms of VMware Workstation? I'm asking, because you might mean some completely other infrastructure than I assume.

[Edward Waszkowski]

Thanks for the reply RaSystemlord.

When I commented about receiving a new laptop, I just wanted to communicate that whatever the problem is with k, it does not seem to affect VMware VCenter Converter Standalone, as that is working just fine.
And yes... all I was saying about reinstalling all of my programs is that there seems to be something unique about VMWorkstation as all of my other programs installed and run just fine.

Thanks for the insight... hopefully someone else knows how to resolve the (0xc0000007b) problem with VMWorkstation.

[Dhairya Tomar]

Edward Waszkowski Request you to try below steps and update if issue still persists-

1. Clean Uninstall Workstation Pro using below-
Uninstall WS Pro/Player.
Go to this location - C:\ProgramData\VMware and delete the folders for VMware Workstation and VMware Player.
Go to this location - C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\VMware and delete all the files inside
Go to this location - C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware and delete the folders for VMware Workstation and VMware Player.
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 latest WS Pro 25H2.

[Edward Waszkowski]

Thank you for the information and recommendations Dhairya Tomar, unfortunately, I followed all of your instructions EXACTLY, I rebooted, re-installed VMWare Workstation Pro 25H2 and I am getting the exact same error:

vmware.exe - Application Error
The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000007b). Click OK to close the application.

Interestingly, if I try to run the ovptool.exe, it also gives the exact same error.  Is that a clue?

Could this be some security issue on my corporate laptop?

If so, it would be strange as I can run "VMWare vcenter Converter Standalone" version 9.0.0 with no problems.

Any other ideas?

[RaSystemlord]

Thanks for letting the Forum know.

It's really bad if the software install doesn't warn about this missing piece OR if that dependency is not mentioned in Release Notes. It's a very common dependency, but that really should be mentioned somewhere.

My comments on the "corporate laptop" were based on cases, where the "ordinary user" does not even know and is not let to know, what security measures are running on the laptop. Thus, strange things can happen when trying to run new software.

[James Lin]

It's really bad if the software install doesn't warn about this missing piece OR if that dependency is not mentioned in Release Notes. It's a very common dependency, but that really should be mentioned somewhere.

The VMware Workstation 25H2 installer should already be including the Visual C++ runtime redistributable, so it's not something that it should warn about or that should be mentioned in the release notes.  It is quite strange if the installer is not automatically installing the required Visual C++ runtime files.