wondering if its just me.. I deploy my MasterImage and install software via WinRM. When deploying to a W11 beginning with 2026-01 updates, installation of VMware Tools take up to 40 minutes. All other software installs normally. Using a 2025-11 ISO installation takes about 4 minutes. Also using 2025-11, applying 2026-01 and were back to 45 minutes.. No significant errors in msi log, just slooooooow...

Is it the same when you do the installation by hand? I'll see in my lab what the result is if i create a new W11 VM with packer and install vmware tools

thanks for testing. in my case its 24h2 but i will test. Generally doing the same as packer.. just without packer. I just saw that my power plan is still balanced instead of high/ultimate performance, but i dont think its the cause for this.

Is your base image built as new, or sysprepped? Jan updates dropped in the new restrictions if the image doesn't have unique guids from sysprepping or new builds. Had a customer that we had to completely rebuild their stuff from scratch because they cloned an image that wasn't sysprepped and then remote connections just never worked.

its in a very early stage, where i deploy a non-domain joined VM from windows ISO to install updates etc. and convert it into a template for later use. The tools installation is embedded either in firstlogoncommands or even earlier.