Windows 7 vSphere Issues

Here is common scenario in IT.  You just got a new laptop at work as the company is upgrading and you decide to move over your applications from your old Windows XP laptop.  You begin reinstalling each application and tweaking it to your liking.  Finally you run across "the application", you know the one that is going to give you trouble because you are on a new operating system.  You check the vendors website and sure enough it says Windows 7 support, but installer throwing error messages at you begs to differ.  Well for me it just happens to be vSphere. 

Apparently there is a Windows 7 version of the client however there is an issue with using the .NET 3.5 SP1 framework on Windows 7 and the program.  So what's the fix?  You need to download and install the .NET 3.5 SP1 framework on Windows XP!!  Seriously?!  Anyway to resolve this issue isn't too complicated but does require a little work. 

1.  First you will need to install the vSphere client, but don't run it just yet.

2.  Download the following system.dll to replace the broken one in Windows 7 [Download Here].

3.  Go to C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher and create a folder called "lib".

4.  Copy the system.dll to lib.

5.  Going back to the launcher directory rename VpxClient.exe.config to VpxClient.exe.old and open it for editing.

6.  Add the following line right before the close of the "configuration" tag and "Save As" VpxClient.exe.config.

[runtime] 
   [developmentMode developerInstallation="true"/]
[/runtime]

* Replace [ with >

7. Open the advanced tab of system properties and create a new environment variable.
    Variable Name: DEVPATH
    Variable Value: C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\Lib

Finished!  You should now be able to launch the vSpphere client with no problems, however there are some reports that you must "Run as Administrator" if it still gives you errors.  This isn't a huge fix to get the application working however VMware is a big enough company where they should put some time into researching why things like this don't work.