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The option is greyed out if the machine is not running. Start the machine and allow it time to fully start. Then go to the VM menu and install or reinstall the tools<br />
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If the Tools are running in the XP machine there will be a Tools icon in the system tray.
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Also, sometimes you need to install the tools from Setup. Start the XP guest, open an admin command prompt. change to the CD Rom drive and type Setup /C
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what specification is your host and VM, VMware Tools does not usually speed it up?
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I have a 2.6 GHz Windows 10 Host with Workstation 12.1 (newest) and XP runs fine after starting.
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Assuming you have a hard drive, close the guest, click on the Hard Drive settings and Defrag the machine.
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The tools icon is showing in the system tray but still the re-install tools option is greyed out.<br />
VMware workstation 12 Pro was delivered electronically from VMWare, there is no CD rom drive.<br />
I ran the Install program again and selected the repair option but this made no difference.
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The PC is brand new (2 weeks old) from Dell and has a 1TB SSD as the primary drive. It is a Dell Precision 7710 with 32 GB of RAM and a 5th generation Core i7 Intel 6820HQ Processor running at 2.7 GHz
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The guest will not be slow because of the physical drive. Get a new download and try reinstalling VMware.
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If I uninstall VMware workstation and re-install, can I retain the virtual machine files without having to re-install the VM ?
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The option should be Install VMware Tools, and select it when the VM is Powered UP and ON.
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Yes. but keep a backup copy to be sure. Reinstalling VMware does NOT damage a guest. I have done this many times over the decades.
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Adding a virtual CD-ROM drive made the Re-install tools option no longer greyed out.<br />
I have an older PC of similar but lesser spec running VM-Ware workstation 11 and an Xp VM that runs quite fast so I was expecting the new faster machine to run faster but that will be the subject of another question if I am not able to fix the slowness after some further research.
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I have just installed VMware workstation 12 Pro &nbsp;version 12.1.1 build-3770994 on a Windows 7 Professional host.<br />
I have installed a new virtual machine Windows Xp Professional SP3 and it is painfully slow. I suspect that I need to re-install VMware tools on the Virtual machine.<br />
I have tried to re-install VMware tools on the virtual machine but when I select the VM drop down menu from the virtual machine, the &quot;Re-Install VMware tools ..&quot; option is greyed out. How can I install VMware tools ?
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I have just installed VMware workstation 12 Pro  version 12.1.1 build-3770994 on a Windows 7 Professional host.
I have installed a new virtual machine Windows Xp Professional SP3 and it is painfully slow. I suspect that I need to re-install VMware tools on the Virtual machine.
I have tried to re-install VMware tools on the virtual machine but when I select the VM drop down menu from the virtual machine, the "Re-Install VMware tools .." option is greyed out. How can I install VMware tools ?

VMWare workstation 12 pro no vmware tools

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture.  Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.

VMware

Virtualization is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, including (but not limited to) a virtual computer hardware platform, operating system (OS), storage device, or computer network resources. Virtualization is usually the creation of a system that executes separate from the underlying hardware resources, or the creation of an entire desktop for systems located elsewhere, similar to thin clients.