Fix “VMware Unable to open virtual machine” on Windows

You might see this error if the computer running VMware was restarted.

These steps were verified on 8/14/2025 using VMware® Workstation 17 Pro 17.5.2 build-23775571.

Steps:

  1. Note the .vmx file’s folder.

VMWare "Unable to open virtual machine" error

  1. Locate the .vmx.lck folder.

The VMWare lck folder to delete

  1. Delete it.