Open terminal, elevate user with sudo -i, and enter the following command:
“sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop”.
Then reboot the VM to complete the install.
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/297811/problem-with-mint-18-and-vmware-tools
"Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon VMware Tools Terminal Direct Install"