While terminating a virtual desktop session, you may have seen this error message “The virtual machine appears to be in use” message. One of the effects that you may experience in this condition is that you can’t just terminate the virtual machine or do anything with it. So, we have devised this particular set of solutions to address this particular problem.
Fix 1 – Kill the VMWare processes and retry
You have to put an end to the VMWare processes, sub-processes and any other related processes. Then, you can relaunch the VMWare to fix the problem.
Step 1 – Hit the Win+X keys together. Or, you can use the Ctrl+Alt+Delete key combinations.
Step 2 – Next, open the “Task Manager” tab.
Step 3 – Find the virtual machine processes or any other sub-services related to the VMWare.
Step 4 – Next, right-click that and tap “End task” to kill those.
Once you have put down all the VMWare services or processes, you can restart the virtual machine. This time, you won’t see the “The virtual machine appears to be in use” message.
Fix 2 – Delete the lock file associated to the VM
The virtual machine creates a .lck file in the machine directory for a particular reason. The redundant lock files can cause this sort of problem.
Step 1 – Launch the Workstation console.
Step 2 – Select the virtual machine from the left-hand tab.
Step 3 – Check the location of the “Configuration file:” directly from the right-hand tab. You have to reach this folder.
Step 3 – Then, power off the virtual machine, if you have not done that already.
Step 4 – Close the Workstation as well.
Step 3 – Reach the virtual machine directory.
Step 4 – Look for any folders with the “.lck” extension. You have to delete any such folders from the installation directory.
You won’t get the error prompt again.
NOTE – Sometimes, simply turning off the virtual machine may not be enough to free up the impositions on the lock files. So, you can just restart your main computer to put everything at rest and then proceed to delete the .lck folders.
Go for the next solution, if this one doesn’t work.
Fix 3 – Check for the VMWare update
See whether any version update is pending for the VMware Workstation.
Step 1 – To do this, launch the VMWare Workstation app.
Step 2 – Tap the “Help” tab and open up the “Software Updates“.
Step 3 – You can now download and install the latest version of the workstation.
Once you have installed it, see if that solves your problem.
Fix 4 – Uninstall and reinstall the VMWare Workstation
Reinstalling the Workstation should work out for you.
Step 1 – Search for “workstation” from the search box.
Step 2 – Then, right-tap the “Workstation” and, tap the “Uninstall” option to uninstall the VMware Workstation.
Step 3 – Later, download the Workstation utility on your computer.
Step 4 – Use the installer to install the Workstation.
See if this resolves the problem or not.
Check if this works out or not.