VMware Tools upgrade error, Unable to uninstall previous version

Last week when I was upgrading VMware tools on some virtual machines, on one virtual machine tools update got failed as VMware Tools tried to uninstall the previous version but it failed because it couldn't reference the previous VMware Tools msi. 

This is an issue with Microsoft Windows Installer and does not affect all Windows 2008/2003 systems. The problem can occur when the original install path from the older version of VMware Tools is invalid, such as if the install path was E:\ and that path is no longer present.

To resolve this issue, one must perform a forced uninstall and reinstall of VMware Tools.

To uninstall and reinstall VMware Tools:

1. Right-click the virtual machine and click Guest => Install/Upgrade VMware Tools.
2. Open a Console to the virtual machine and log into the guest operating system.
3. Click Start > Run, type cmd, and click OK.
4. Change the drive to your CD-ROM drive (For example, D:\), type setup /c and press Enter to force removal of all registry entries and delete the old version of VMware Tools.

or 

Note: For 64-bit guest operating systems, type setup64 /c instead.

The above procedure will hardly take few seconds and once completed, Open My Computer, browse CD-ROM and install VMware tools using the GUI interface (This must be done from the GUI). 

When the installation completes, reboot the guest operating system.

Reference: VMware KB# 1012693. Aslo have a look at KBs # 1001354, 2007298 for related error and fixes.

That's It... :)