Windows Server 2008 R2 Console freezes when viewed from vSphere client

The Solution

1. First off you’ll need your VM to be running the latest VMware Tools and be on VM Hardware version 7. This means you’ll probably be running a vSphere environment with ESX or ESXi 4 hosts

2. Start by shutting the VM down. Edit the settings of the VM and ensure its Video RAM setting is set to 16MB or higher.

3. After applying the Video RAM setting, start the VM up again, login to Windows and open up the Device Manager.

4. Expand the “Display Adapters” tree item and right-click your existing Video driver (this should be called “VMware SVGA II”) – select “Update Driver Software”.

5. Browse for the driver and navigate to the ‘C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\drivers\wddm_video’ folder. Complete the wizard and you should end up with a driver labelled as “VMware SVGA 3D (Microsoft Corporation – WDDM)” being installed.

If the wizard doesn’t pick this driver up try browsing for the driver again, but this time opt to “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer”. Navigate to the ‘C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\drivers\wddm_video’ folder again and choose the  “vm3d.inf” file. Finish the driver installation.

6. Restart your VM when prompted.

7. Once you are back in Windows check your Device Manager to ensure you now have the correct driver installed.