USB-Tethering an iPhone to a VM(ware)

Sometimes I need to use a VMware Workstation Windows VM for testing or analyzing things.

And also sometimes, I need to do this while there is no NATed or bridged network (ethernet or WiFi) availabe. Eg. because there are proxy restrictions or other security reasons.

So I liked to use my iPhone for tethering it through USB (which allows to load it at the same time) with my virtual machine. This can be done by installing iTunes on that Windows VM. But hey, I don't want that whole bloated iTunes stuff :-(

I googled this page, which indicated the way. But is it still valid?

It is… thank you, Web Sailor :-)

In short, tested against a Windows Server 2016 VM (Tech Preview 5)

  • Download iTunes (in my case iTunes 12.4.1.6) from the Apple Website.
  • Use 7Zip to «Open» the file iTunes[version].exe
    Opened iTunesSetup.exe with it's msi inside
  • For an 64 Bit Windows target extract the «AppleApplicationSupport64.msi» and «AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi» to your disk and copy it to the target VM or machine
  • Install the files beginning with «AppleApplicationSupport64.msi» and then «AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi»!
  • If you try it the other way, you may have a hung install like this
    Mobile Support seem to hang

    followed by this error
    Error message while installing tethering support for iPhone on Windows
  • If you installed it the right way, you should be able to connect your iPhone through USB and get an internet connection. For VMware Workstation, use the small icon to connect your iPhone to the VM
    how to connect an iPhone via USB to your VM
  • In my case, I also needed to activate the «trust this computer» on my iPhone as described in this Apple KB
  • After that, the network connection with my iPhone was detected and did work as a charm.
    Network settings of my VM after tethering with my iPhone

Urs | Dienstag 21 Juni 2016 - 6:46 pm | | default | Kein Kommentar
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