A: No. Workstation 15 ships with VMware Tools 10.3.x. However, if you run a very old guest OS (e.g., Windows NT 4.0), 10.0.12 might be the last version that supports it.
If your physical host is running ESXi 5.5 or 6.0, newer versions of VMware Tools may introduce compatibility quirks. Version 10.0.12 was the recommended tools version for vSphere 6.0 Update 3.
If your ESXi hosts are on version 6.0 or 6.5 (including Update 3), you cannot run Tools 11.x or 12.x without breaking functionality. Attempting to install a newer tool version on an old host often results in the "VMware Tools upgrade incomplete" error. vmware tools 10.0.12 iso
Here is what 10.0.12 fixes and improves over earlier 10.x builds:
| Operating System | Compatibility | Notes | |---|---|---| | Windows 10 (early builds) | ✅ Yes | Version 1511 and earlier | | Windows 8 / 8.1 | ✅ Yes | Full support | | Windows 7 SP1 | ✅ Best | One of the last fully compatible versions | | Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2 | ✅ Yes | | | Windows Server 2008 R2 | ✅ Yes | | | Windows Vista SP2 | ✅ Yes | | | Windows Server 2003 SP2 | ⚠️ Limited | Works but no newer security features | | Ubuntu 16.04 / 14.04 | ✅ Yes | | | RHEL / CentOS 6.x – 7.2 | ✅ Yes | | | SUSE Linux Enterprise 11/12 | ✅ Yes | | | macOS (as guest) | ❌ No | Not supported | A: No
We will cover the two most common scenarios: Windows legacy OS and Linux (RHEL/CentOS 6).
Fix: For older kernels like 2.6.32, you may need to patch the source. A simpler workaround is to use Open VM Tools (open-vm-tools) if your Linux distribution supports it, but note that version 10.0.12 predates open-vm-tools integration. Alternatively, compile without the HGFS module: For older Linux distros without open-vm-tools , the 10
./vmware-install.pl --clobber-kernel-modules=vmhgfs
For older Linux distros without open-vm-tools, the 10.0.12 ISO remains essential.