dtewales

Retrieving VMware Workstation VM encryption passwords saved in the the Windows Credential Manager

When creating an encrypted VM, VMware Workstation gives you the option to remember the password. It does this by storing the password in the Windows Credential Manager.

VMware does not provide a way to retrieve this stored password, but it can be accessed via the Win32 CredReadW API function.

There are a number of PowerShell projects including PowerShell Credential Manager which provide access to this API, but in testing I found they were unable to correctly display the VMware password.

This PowerShell example has been tested using Windows PowerShell (v5.1) and PowerShell (v7) using VMwa

Windows Server 2022 Evaluation (Eval) to Full Version

Download Windows Server 2022 Evaluation English from Microsoft

https://software-static.download.prss.microsoft.com/sg/download/888969d5-f34g-4e03-ac9d-1f9786c66749/SERVER_EVAL_x64FRE_en-us.iso

Upgrade (Eval) to Full version

Open cmd (run as administrator), then use

Upgrade to STANDARD

dism /online /set-edition:serverstandard /productkey:VDYBN-27WPP-V4HQT-9VMD4-VMK7H /accepteula

	Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

	[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search]
	"BingSearchEnabled"=dword:00000000
	"AllowSearchToUseLocation"=dword:00000000
	"CortanaConsent"=dword:00000000

	[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search]
	"AllowCortana"=dword:00000000
	"DisableWebSearch"=dword:00000001

	#####################################################################################################################
	# Script to disable unnecesary Windows services and improve the performance.
	#
	# This use the command Set-Service, you can check the below link for more information
	# https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.management/set-service?view=powershell-7
	#
	# You should check what service you want to disable, like Windows defender, Windows Search
	# or Seclogon (necesary for some programs or games).
	# Some services were removed in Windows 10.
	#####################################################################################################################

	#Install WinGet
	#Based on this gist: https://gist.github.com/crutkas/6c2096eae387e544bd05cde246f23901
	$hasPackageManager = Get-AppPackage -name 'Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller'
	if (!$hasPackageManager -or [version]$hasPackageManager.Version -lt [version]"1.10.0.0") {
	"Installing winget Dependencies"
	Add-AppxPackage -Path 'https://aka.ms/Microsoft.VCLibs.x64.14.00.Desktop.appx'

	$releases_url = 'https://api.github.com/repos/microsoft/winget-cli/releases/latest'

	[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12

	<!doctype html>
	<title>Site Maintenance</title>
	<style>
	body { text-align: center; padding: 150px; }
	h1 { font-size: 50px; }
	body { font: 20px Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #333; }
	article { display: block; text-align: left; width: 650px; margin: 0 auto; }
	a { color: #dc8100; text-decoration: none; }
	a:hover { color: #333; text-decoration: none; }
	</style>

	Installing CYGWIN with SSH
	1) Download cygwin setup.exe from http://www.cygwin.com
	- Execute setup.exe
	- Install from internet
	- Root directory: `c:\cygwin` + all users
	- Local package directory: use default value
	- Select a mirror to download files from
	- Select these packages:
	- editors > xemacs 21.4.22-1
	- net > openssh 6.1-p