Parallels Tools Installer Fails / Can't Un-Install Old Version of Parallels Tools

I notice that un-installing the old version of Parallels tools has been a prolific problem. I have struggled with it each time an update has come out. The last time I had this problem in version 7, I walked away from Parallels for a year or so and struggled with other VMs. Now with the latest version, I once again ran into the problem of the Tools installer hanging when it was trying to remove the old version of Tools; when it was asking you to browse for the .msi file / installer, which no one seems to be able to find.

Some have suggested to go to Control Panel and un-install Tools that way, but of course that will also end up with you having to browse for the .msi / installer file.

There was only one solution that fixed my problem, and forgive me for not properly giving credit to the poster. But in a post by user Rick L., he suggested going to: http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall and using that utility to un-install the old version of Parallels Tools, and then continuing on with the installation of the new version. It worked like a charm. It said there were several corrupted registry entries, etc.

So thanks Rick L. for the help. Parallels support should really try to figure out why this happens and provide better solutions. It has happened to me several times over the years, and pushed me away for a year or so.

Hope this helps.

 

thank you for posting this, it was immensely helpful. i too have struggles with updating parallels tools every time an update comes out, so much so that i'm hesitant to ever install another update. it is very surprising that parallels has not fixed this problem. i was moments away from leaving parallels forever until i found this post, so thank you very much for your help!