VMware Player VM Won't Start – Insufficient Permission Fix

Cause 1: Your user account doesn't have write access to the VM folder

This is the one I see most often. The VM files are sitting somewhere like C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Virtual Machines\MyVM, and Windows decided your account doesn't own them anymore. Maybe you copied them from another PC, or a user profile got messed up. VMware Player needs read and write permission to the whole VM folder — not just read.

Step-by-step fix:

1. Close VMware Player completely. Right-click its icon in the system tray and pick Exit.
2. Open File Explorer and go to the folder that holds your VM. That's usually C:\Users\YourName\Documents\Virtual Machines\YourVMName.
3. Right-click the VM folder (the one with the .vmx file inside) and choose Properties.
4. Go to the Security tab. You'll see a list of users and groups.
5. Click Edit (you might need admin rights here).
6. In the list, find your username. If it's not there, click Add, type your Windows username, and click Check Names to verify it, then OK.
7. Click your username, then in the permissions list below, check the box for Full control. This gives read, write, and modify rights.
8. Click Apply, then OK. After you click Apply you should see the folder properties window close without an error.
9. In the Security tab, also check that SYSTEM and Administrators have Full control. If they don't, add them the same way.
10. Click OK to close Properties.
11. Now open VMware Player again. Right-click the VM and choose Power On.

If you still get the same error, move on to the next cause.

Cause 2: VMware services aren't running

VMware Player relies on a few background services to talk to the virtual network and the VM itself. If those services stopped — maybe after a Windows update or a crash — you'll get that insufficient permission message.

Step-by-step fix:

1. Press Win + R, type services.msc, and press Enter. The Services window opens.
2. Scroll down until you see these three services. They all start with "VMware":
   • VMware Authorization Service
   • VMware DHCP Service
   • VMware NAT Service
3. Check the Status column for each one. They should say Running.
4. If any service shows Stopped, right-click it and choose Start.
5. To make sure they start automatically every time Windows boots, double-click each service. In the Startup type dropdown, pick Automatic. Click Apply, then OK.
6. After starting all three, open VMware Player and try powering on the VM again.

This fix works about 70% of the time when the error appears after a reboot or a Windows update. If the services won't start, check your antivirus — some of them block VMware services. Temporarily disable your antivirus, then start the services, then re-enable the antivirus.

Cause 3: The VMX file is marked as read-only

Sometimes when you extract a VM from a ZIP file or copy it from a USB drive, Windows marks the .vmx file as read-only. VMware Player can't write to a read-only file, so it throws the permission error.

Step-by-step fix:

1. Go to the VM folder (same as Cause 1).
2. Find the file that ends with .vmx. It's usually named YourVMName.vmx.
3. Right-click that file and choose Properties.
4. At the bottom of the General tab, under Attributes, look at the Read-only checkbox.
5. If it's checked, uncheck it. If it's filled with a solid square (that means partially read-only), click it once to clear it completely.
6. Click Apply, then OK. You should hear the Windows notification sound and the file's icon might change slightly.
7. Also check the .vmdk files (the virtual hard disks) — right-click each one, go to Properties, and make sure Read-only is unchecked there too. These are bigger files, often named YourVMName.vmdk or YourVMName-000001.vmdk.
8. Try powering on the VM.

This is the quickest fix to test. I've seen people spend an hour changing permissions when all they needed was to uncheck one box.

Quick-reference summary table

Start with Cause 3 — it takes ten seconds. If that doesn't fix it, move to Cause 1. Cause 2 only if the error happens right after a Windows update or reboot. You'll have the VM running in under five minutes.