I was recently looking for a quick way to verify that all my VMs have been updated with the latest versions of tools and virtual hardware. I was thinking I would need to use a PowerCLI or vCLI script to do this, but was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that I can easily get this info from the vSphere client.
Simply select your data center or cluster and go to the "Virtual Machines" tab. Here you can customize the columns that are displayed by right clicking on any of the column headings. From the list of available options select "VM Version" and VMware Tools Version Status".
Once the new columns were added I was able to drag and drop the column headings to change the display order, making it possible to see the VM name, virtual hardware version, and VMware Tools version in one view without having to use the horizontal scroll bar.
End result is just want I needed, a list of my VMs along with the virtual hardware and VMware Tools versions – and no scripting was required!
