his virtual machine appears to be in use.

If this virtual machine is not in use, press the “Take Ownership”  button to obtain ownership of it. Otherwise, press the ‘Cancel’ button to avoid damaging it.

Solution:

1. Turn off the VM.
2. Close VMware Workstation.
3. Open the folder where VMware files are located indicated in the error message.
4. Remove any .lck or .lock files.
5. Run VMware Workstation.
6. Start the VM.

Tested in vmware workstation 15 pro [15.0.3 build-12422535]