What do FlexSVR.exe and MFC71U.DLL have in common with upgrading VMWare Workstation 6.5 Tools?

Actual nothing, but the fact that upgrading or, to be more specific, un-installing VMWare Workstation 6.5 Tools could break the FlexLM licensing subsystem and leave all software products that depend on it not functional. In my case FlexLM is managing Rockwell’s FactoryTalk software. The underlying reason for this problem is the removal of the MFC71U.DLL from the C:\Windows\System32 folder during the un-install of the VMWare Workstation 6.5 Tools. FlexLM requires this DLL and will not start, if it is not there.

Figure 1: flexsvr.exe failed to start.

Details

Quick and Dirty Fixes

I tried to repair the installs of the licensing tool and VMWare tools but, this didn’t seem to re-install MFC71U.DLL.

Fix 1

If you have an VMWare snapshot available that still has the old version of the VMWare tools installed, then just revert to this snapshot and either copy the MFC71U.DLL before the VMWare Tools upgrade or opt not to upgrade the tools at all.

Fix 2

Download the missing DLL from here: MFC71U.zipand copy it back into your C:\Windows\System32 folder. Make sure that the downloaded version is compatible with your system.

Ausblick

Good luck!