VMware and File Sharing on Windows Vista

Just a while ago I figured out a problem that had been giving me fits for quite awhile! At work when I was working on someone else's computer there were times when I wanted to access files on my own work computer. I kept getting errors saying that my computer was not accessible or that access was denied. It was so weird!

I finally tracked down the culprit! It was VMware! VMware Workstation installs two other network adapters, vmnet1 and vmnet8. These are only used when you configure your virtual machines to use NAT or host-only networking. I don't use these configurations, I only use bridged networking. After disabling these adapters I now have Windows file sharing working perfectly on Vista!

It sure makes me happy when I can access the files on my work computer like I should be able to :)

(Image taken from vmware.com)