Broken VMware Workstation Network Adapter

9 Commentswindows, , ,

After upgrading Windows Vista to Windows 7 you might encounter an issue with VMware Workstation and its network adapter.

VMware Workstation Error Message

 

When setting up a NAT or bridged network connection in VMware Workstation it shows a message telling

The virtual network drivers on the host are incompatible with the installed VMware application. Expected version 5. Please reinstall the product. Failed to connect virtual device Ethernet0.

Make sure all your virtual machines are powered off and quit VMware Workstation. Open a command shell as administrator and follow the steps below.

First cd %windir%system32drivers, check for the file vmnetadapter.sys, right-click it, select Details and check its version. It should be 4.0.2.0. If the file is not there,

cd “%ProgramFiles(x86)%VMwareVMware Workstation”

rundll32 setupapi,InstallHinfSection VMnetAdapter1.Install 128 %CD%netadapter.inf

vnetlib — install devices

This will install the required adapters and devices. Do again a cd %windir%system32drivers and check for the First cd %windir%system32drivers, check for the file vmnetadapter.sys file.

vmnetadapter.sys

After a reboot of the host system, the NAT settings for the VMware network adapters should work again. Switching to bridged mode will probably result in another message.

VMware Workstation Error Message

Reason for the message saying

The network bridge on device VMnet0 is not running. The virtual machine will not be able to communicate with the host or with other machines on your network.
Failed to connect virtual device Ethernet0.

might be the missing VMware Bridge Protocol on the according host network adapter.

Got to Network and Sharing Center and select Change adapter settings. Choose the network connection you want to use with your VMware network adapter, right-click, select Properties, Install, Service and finally Add. This will allow you to select the VMware Bridge Protocol. In case the entry is not listed, select Have Disk… and navigate to %ProgramFiles(x86)%VMwareVMware Workstation.

VMware Bridge Protocol

After installing the VMware Bridge Protocol restart the VMware Workstation and choose the bridged mode for the network adapter.

VMware Network Adapter

9 Comments

  1. Haik Nazlian

    Reply

    OMG! This is really works!!!
    I did an upgrade from Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 7 Enterprise and this is saved my life.

  2. Oleg

    Reply

    Thank You Very Much!

    I did as well an upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7. It helped to get VM running again.

    Thanks a lot!

  3. MD

    Reply

    Thanks. I installed VM Workstation 8 on Windows 7 64bit OS and could not get my virtual machines to connect to the network. Going to Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center -> VMware Network Adapter VMnet1 -> Properties and then checking VMware Bridge Protocol did the trick.
    (Did also for VMnet8 as well)

  4. Kristian

    Reply

    Awesome!

    I upgraded from Win7 to Win8, wich caused the problem.

    But works fine now, thanks alot!

  5. UK

    Reply

    Hi:

    My Bridged mode on HOst – Windows 7 running VMPlayer to a Guest (CentOS) was running fine until it started timing out. I have reinstalled the VMWare Bridge Protocol a couple of time, but keep getting the second error mentioned here:

    The network bridge on device VMnet0 is not running. The virtual machine will not be able to communicate with the host or with other machines on your network.
    Failed to connect virtual device Ethernet0.

    Any recommendations welcome!

    Thx,
    UK

  6. BD

    Reply

    Thank you so much! This worked for me after my guest VM could not access the network on upgrading from Windows 8 to 8.1

  8. Al Bledsoe

    Reply

    I just went into Workstation 10, after realizing all of my VMnets were scrogged following a Windows 8.1 update, and from the Edit menu, selected Virtual Network Editor. (First I uininstalled the VMnet interfaces from Windows, but you may not need to as you will see…) I then just pressed the Restore Defaults button, and it did: after it said it was uninstalling existing interfaces, it recreated the interfaces. I am working now. YMMV 😉

  9. Vit

    Reply

    It worked: I succeeded in using bridged connection, following your suggestion. Thanks a lot!

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