What is the VMSG file format?
A .vmsg file is a VMware localization message file - a plain-text support file that stores the string pairs used by VMware applications to display messages through their interface. .vmsg files contain a collection of key=value pairs that the application reads at runtime to render menus, dialogs, and status messages in the correct language, making them the mechanism by which VMware products localize their interface.
VMware, Inc. - founded in 1998 in California and now part of Broadcom - develops virtualization software that uses .vmsg locale files. A virtual machine is a software environment that virtualizes hardware, allowing a guest operating system to run on a different host platform. VMware's products use .vmsg files to make their interfaces accessible across language regions, with each file version-specific to a particular product release.
.vmsg files are plain text and can be opened in any text editor. They are loaded automatically at runtime; end users do not normally need to interact with them directly. VMware runtime log files use the .log extension and are unrelated to .vmsg.
Note that the .vmsg extension is also used by an entirely different format: vMessage - SMS message archives from Microsoft Lumia and Windows Phone devices. These two formats share only the extension and have no technical relationship.
Security & safety
RISK: LOWPlain text file with no executable content. Not a malware vector. SMS .vmsg files may contain private message content.
Format details
in a nutshell- vMessage / Microsoft Lumia SMS File - Windows Phone (Microsoft Lumia) stores SMS/MMS messages as .vmsg files based loosely on the IrDA IrMC vMessage standard; popular online converters exist to read these.
- vMessage (IrDA IrMC standard, Nokia/Siemens) - Older Nokia and Siemens phones used .vmg (sometimes .vmsg) for SMS backup per IrDA IrMC v1.1 specification; plain text with BEGIN:VMSG / END:VMSG delimiters.
Programs that open VMSG files
Windows2 apps
VMware Workstation Pro
Free VMware uses .vmsg files internally; open for reading/editing with any text editor, not from within VMware's UI. 
Linux1 app
VMware Workstation Pro
Free VMware uses .vmsg internally on Linux too; view with any text editor (nano, vim, gedit).
sms-vmsg.org
Free Online tool to read and convert vMessage SMS .vmsg files to readable formats (for the phone-SMS variant). Technical details
deep spec| Encoding | Plain text (UTF-8 or ASCII) |
| Structure | key=value string pairs, one per line |
| Typical file size | 1 KB - 500 KB |
| Runtime use | Loaded by VMware products at startup for UI localization and message lookup |
| Version specificity | Tied to a specific VMware Workstation release; internal structure not publicly documented |
| Editability | Readable and editable with any plain-text editor |
| Associated VMware files | .vmx (VM configuration), .vmdk (virtual disk), .log (runtime log) |
| Operating systems | Windows, Linux |
| Extension collision | .vmsg also identifies vMessage - Windows Phone SMS archives (unrelated format sharing the extension) |
| Loading | Loaded automatically at runtime; no user action required |
| Released | early 2000s (VMware Workstation early versions) |
| Latest version | VMware Workstation Pro 17.x (2024) |
VMSG conversions
Community Q&A
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