vc_runtimeMinimum_x86.msi is missing for the VMware tools upgrade

After upgrading Windows 2012 server to Windows 2019 I tried reinstalling VMware tools because prior to the upgrade I had to uninstall the video driver from the VM.

When you run the upgrade you might notice that vc_runtimeMinimum_x86.msi is missing for the VMware tools upgrade.

Microsoft Visual C+’ 2022 X86 Minimum Runtime – 14.32.31326
The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable.
Click OK to try again, or enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package ‘vc_runtimeMinimum_x86.msi’

I tried downloading and installing the Microsoft Visual C++ package but received the same prompt.

So in order to solve this, you’ll have to navigate to the following path on another server that has the required ‘vc_runtimeMinimum_x86.msi’ package:

C:\ProgramData\Package Cache\

On this path, you will find the following folders:

To be sure, copy all of the above folders to the C:\ProgramData\Package Cache\ folder because you’ll require files from 2 folders, but I can’t remember which ones 🙂

Run the VMware tools updater again and you shouldn’t get this prompt again. If you do then select the folders that have the required .msi files.

Hope this helps.