Installing VMware vSphere Client 4.1 U3 on Windows Server 2012 R2

VMware vSphere Client 4.1 is not supported by Windows Server 2012 R2. This software was invented during WinXP regime and becomes not quite compatible with nowadays versions of Windows. Still, there are a few tricks to make it work again. I tested it on Windows 2012 R2 platform while it might be working on Windows 8 as well.

Before we proceed, we need to make sure that VMware ESXi platform has been installed properly on the target machine with a known IP address. This will lead to the next step of the installation process.

For the direct download of vSphere Client v4.1, please access the frontpage of your ESXi web management console via web browser (with URL like https://IP.TO.ESXI.MACHINE) and click on the hyperlink of Download vSphere Client. This makes sure that we have got the version of vSphere Client compatible with the actual ESXi environment we are managing.

The installation file will be named with something like: VMware-viclient-all-4.1.0-???????.exe

Assuming the file has been downloaded to a folder C:\Downloads\, we need to process it before use.

A little pre-requisite for vSphere Client is J# redistributable package which can downloaded via:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15468

First, run the J# package to install so as to make Windows server meet the installation requirements. We can skip it if we already have the package installed or we may let vSphere Client installation file to deal with this.

Before the actual installation of vSphere Client V4.1, it is necessary to set some options on the installation file itself.

Right-click on the installation executable and select Properties. 

Under Compatibility tab, check the following checkboxes:

• Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows 7
• Run this program as an administrator

Double-click on the installation executable like VMware-viclient-all-4.1.0-???????.exe and it should run through the whole process successfully. 

After all, the icon of vSphere Client will appear on Windows Desktop.