VMWare: Windows 7 Ethernet is Missing

15

Posted February 20, 2011 by Abigail Nering in Articles

I recently created a VM for Windows 7 and proceeded to waste hours trying to figure out why the Ethernet controller was missing from the Device Manager. Installing VMWare Tools didn’t fix the issue, tracking down the correct Ethernet driver didn’t help; other people that created the same Virtual Machine were not having problems (of course), just me. Fixing the problem is easier than you may think…

Shut Down your Virtual Machine completely, suspending it will NOT work!
Find the main .vmx file for your Virtual Machine, right click, and choose Edit
Look for the line:
```
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
```
Once you’ve located the line, ABOVE it enter the following code:
```
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
```
Save the file and power on your Windows 7 Virtual Machine. It should automatically detect the network adapter and install the components.
Join your domain (if necessary).

Networking, VMware, Windows 7

About the Author

Abigail Nering

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davidn

Thanks a lot for sharing!
egg

for two days i was unable to work…… Thanks very much !!
Lukaj

I’m going crazy all this morning ! Thanks a lot..now it works !
Lucky

Abigail you rock mate………..this helped me in getting my issue fixed.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_R4LDUSCB2T43DSUKNTB53W7W6Y LynnL

You are amazing! I virtualized a Win7HP 64-bit and ran into this issue. Only your advice resolved it.
Guest

Thank you very much.
This solved the problem immediately. It is very easy after all, after trying to figure if it was because I was using bridge or NAT and trying to change firewall configs.

Thanks a lot!
chaoz

Thanks a bunch! After reading some FAQs, I was looking for the e1000 setting in vmware workstation, but couldn't find it.
Brysy

after much searching, I followed your steps and my VM is now working fine! Many thanks!
HappyJoe

Both lines are in my BootCamp.vmx 'e1000' on line 13 and 'generated' on line 57. Fusion works fine with XP and many Linuxes…
windwalkertrotter

Not sure how you figured this one out but it sure saved me a lot of time…..

Thanks!
zootyboy

> other people that created the same Virtual Machine were not having problems (of course), just me.

not just you

thank you very much.
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