This enhancement applies to VMware Player standalone. If you have VMware Workstation installed, you don't need to apply this as Workstation includes all the features (and also includes VMware Player).

As the most VMware Workstation users know, there is a virtual network editor available that lets you configure the virtual networks, add new networks and delete networks for the virtual machines and also bridged networks with the host computer.

Edit:
One of the usage of the network editor is fixing the bridged network connection:
How to fix bridged networking in VMware player - YouTube

The editor is useful (mostly for advanced users...but you'll never now when it might be needed) to add, delete and configure the default virtual networks that come pre-installed with Player.

VMware Player is Workstation's little brother, it's free and comes with less features. There is no Network editor with VMware Player (...or is it?)



The network editor is available in the VMware Player installer but it's default set NOT to install with the rest of the features (don't know why).

I' using version 4 of the Player but this also applies to version 3.

I'm gonna show you how to add the network editor to VMware Player.
It's easy.

To begin we first need to extract the VMware Player installer with some extra parameters (name-of-installer.exe /e .\extract). You put the installer in a folder of your choice and create a shortcut of it as shown below (1) with the extra parameters in the target:



Then you run the shortcut that creates a folder (extract) containing all the components.

Go to folder "extract". We are interested in "network.cab": open or extract it and there you see "vmnetcfg.exe". It's the network editor.

Copy or move it in the VMware Player installation folder ("\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Player" should be the default path).
This is shown below:



Now we are ready. The network editor is part of VMware Player just like in Workstation.
The virtual networks that appear in the notification area in Windows Vista and later can be configured or deleted:



Don't delete them if you use networking in your virtual machines.
The network editor works as seen in last screenshot.

Update:
This doesn't work in VMware Player 5: the file we need is included with Workstation. (using "/e extract works")
Read here: VMware Communities: Whither VMware Player 5.0 VMNetCfg.exe?

Extra update:
Thanks to Vertigo here later on the thread: How to add the "Virtual Network Editor" to VMware Player
some extra info is provided how to simplify things out: VMware Player 5 already has a vmnetui.dll included and the whole procedure posted above is not needed anymore!


That's it.

Hopachi

I thought this fix is not needed anymore starting with version 4.0.4 of VM Player but I was wrong. My mistake.
The fix still applies because the network.cab doesn't get extracted to Program Files (x86).

Updated for VMware Player 5.

Again: this is not needed for the guys using VMware Workstation 9.
This is needed for those of us using VMware Player 5 only.

And the same problem to VMware Player 5: No network editor included, but this time the problem got bigger.

It seems that the network editor isn't bundled with the Player's installer (no network.cab).
To add vmnetcfg.exe, we need to extract it from Workstation's installer (the link below shows how: -e parameter still applies).

So a 260-400mb file is needed to extract a 4-5mb piece of program we need...

Read here: VMware Communities: Whither VMware Player 5.0 VMNetCfg.exe?

I used a folder just as in my first descriptive post but this time using Workstation's installer + its shortcut with /e extract:

As tested: /e extract works.
This creates a folder named extract in the same folder as the shortcut, no need for command prompt but that works also.

There we go to core.cab and inside we find vmnetcfg:
1.

2.


Then put the network editor in VM Player's folder (...\Program Files (x86)\...).

That's it.
At least it works.

This is extremely useful information, because the Virtual Network Editor adds a great deal of flexibility to the product.

Originally Posted by vertigo

While searching for this info, I ran across a post by emanresu at VMware Communities: virtual network editor disapeared? that has a simpler method. It turns out that Player 5 does include the network editor but it does not provide an easy way to run it.

I created a shortcut with this as my target (all on one line):
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Player\vmnetui.dll" VMNetUI_ShowStandalone

You then need to set the advanced option to run as administrator or use the run as administrator option when you invoke the shortcut. Your path to the vmnetui.dll may differ from mine.

Cheers!

Thank you very much for this!

That's way easier and it works.

I never thought about it but if you look at both files that do this job, they are (almost) of the same size, but the hashes are different.


This is solved and it's even shorter to do, so next time I upgrade Player there's no need to copy the vmnetcfg.exe file from Workstation. ...that's why they took it out in the first place.. it was replaced by a dll. I wonder why it wasn't documented, or how I skipped that part...

Thanks again!
Welcome to the forums!

Cheers
Hopachi

I've edited the first post, near end, to add the extra last-minute info...
Things are simpler now with the latest program versions.

Cheers
Hopachi