Network adapter driver for Vista in VMWare Fusion (Mac)

As of version 2.02 of VMWare Fusion for Mac, Windows Vista does not recognize the virtual machine’s network adapter. That is, there is no network connectivity at all. The emulated network adapter is a standard Intel e1000. (I am running Vista Ultimate, upgraded from Windows XP Profesional, VMWare Fusion 2.02 on MacOs Leopard.)

There is a quick fix in the VMWare Forums:

• Make sure your Vista virtual machine is off (not suspended).
• Go to the Virtual Machines folder on your hard disk (usually under Documents) and locate your virtual machine’s image.
• Ctrl-Click and select Show Package Contents.

• There should be a file named [your virtual machine's name].vmx. Open it using TextEdit or your favourite text editor.

• Add the line ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000" after the first ethernet0: ethernet0.present = "TRUE" ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000" ethernet0.connectionType = "nat" ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = "FALSE"

Save the file and launch your Vista virtual Machine. The network adapter should work properly now.