Hi there
probably not a Windows per se problem but for those running VMWare V16 on Linux hosts using the latest "hot of the presses" kernels - 5.10 / 5.11 the latest release of Windows (fast ring) when booting up as a VM incessantly prompts for "please press any key to skip checking "C". OK let it run and after it runs and completes fixing errors it again prompts.

Re-boot the VM --- same problem - but if you hit a key to skip Disk checking the VM (not Host) just freezes.

Now I'm using NVMe driver for the Windows VM -- so I suspect that the VMWare Nvme driver is probably not compatible with Host drivers --I know the Disks are all OK.

Dropping back to kernel 5.9.14 again (current one) everything is fine.

VMWare seems to really get its knickers in big big twists when Linux updates kernels -- as there's a big prep now for kernel 6.0 to be the mainline one soon so these latest 5.XXX ones should be working.

I have absolutely no problems of any kind running Windows Virtual machines using the standard KVM/QEMU Hypervisor - modules just compile and update automatically on kernel updates.

I know a load even here do use Linux HOST machines to run Windows VM's so this is more than pure academic interest IMO.

Cheers
jimbo