If my installer fails, and rolls back, it wipes out the installation of VMWare Tools
This has got to be the weirdest bug I've ever seen. My installer has a requirement that VMWare tools are installed on the machine before you run mine. It's a totally separate thing, not nested in my installer.
When my installer is run, I do a System Search for HKLM\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware Tools\InstallPath to make sure vmtools is installed. Store it in a property and check that as an install condition. That works fine.
If my installer hits an error, and rolls itself back, it wipes out the installation of vmtools. There's still a folder C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools, but all that's in it are some tmp files. The entry in add/remove programs is also removed.
There is NOTHING in my installer other than that system search that references vmware tools. I have no idea how or why it's getting wiped out.
