Windows 10 breaks VMware workstation 11 and 12 bridge networking
I updated a lot of computers to Windows 10 recently as everyone else most likely has, and I ran into a bug which prevents vms running on VMware Workstation 11 (and previous versions) from using bridged networking (bridge connection) to the Network Interface Card (NIC).
It turns out that Microsoft has seen fit to prevent the addition of services to a network card. This means it’s not possible to use a bridge connection until a way is found around this.
Workaround: Use NAT
Just to be clear, this is VMWare Workstation 11 running on Windows 10. The VM itself can be running Windows XP, 7, 8, 8.1 or 10 and still have the connection issue.
It’s not great for all VMs. Let’s hope this is a bug and not by design and that it will be fixed in an upcoming update.
UPDATE: This has been resolved. Simply enable vmware bridge on your NIC in Windows 10.