Quick Fix – VMware WS: Windows cannot find the Microsoft Software License Terms.

Had a little issue when trying to install a fresh Windows Server 2016 vm in my lab today. I don’t install many Windows guests at home (mostly Linux) but had never had an issue on older builds.

  • Setup: VMware Workstation Pro 12.5.6 build-5528349
  • Windows Build: 14393.rs1

This was installing off the current iso and and I had all default settings. After the boot splash and Loading files dialog, the following message was displayed;

Windows cannot find the Microsoft Software license Terms. Make sure the installation sources are valid and restart the installation.

Clicking ok rebooted the guest and the error was shown again.

A quick check of the vmware.log didn’t show anything obvious, but this piqued my interest a little;

  • 2017-06-10T14:04:01.199+10:00| vmx| A100: ConfigDB: Setting floppy0.clientDevice = “FALSE”

Normally, I remove all superfluous virtual hardware items, as I like to run everything lean and mean. So I edited the settings, and booted up the vm again.

 

No error and the install completed. Happy days.

I’m guessing this has something to do with the Autoinstall feature trying to be clever !

Be frugal with resources, remove what you don’t need. My lesson reinforced today.

Onward with my Docker build…….

 

 

 

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