Came across this error “Error 1316 A network error occurred while attempting to read the file” when updating server 2008 vmware tools. Unable to uninstall the old version either.
This is an issue with Microsoft Windows Installer and does not affect all Windows 2008 systems. The problem can occur when the original install path from the older version of VMware Tools is invalid
To correct this issue, you must perform a forced uninstall and re-install of VMware Tools.
To uninstall and re-install VMware Tools:
1. Right-click on the virtual machine.
2. Click Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools.
3. Open a Console to the virtual machine and log into the guest operating system.
4. Click Start > Run, type cmd, and click OK to open a command prompt in Windows.
5. Change the drive to your CD-ROM drive. For example, D:\.
6. Type setup /c and press Enter to force removal of all registry entries and delete the old version of VMware Tools.
7. In My Computer, double click the CD-ROM that contains VMware Tools.
8. Select setup.exe to install if Auto-Run doesn’t start.