Trying to build a Vista Beta 2 machine in VMWare workstation using WDS?

Unfortunately, at some point Microsoft dropped support for the network card that VMWare emulates. If you recall WinPE 1.1, it loaded the network fine in VMWare. Alas that is no longer the case with Vista PE (also known as PE 2.0). All is not lost however. If you have access to the Windows AIK (WAIK – Windows Automated Install Kit), you can “fix” the missing driver issue pretty quickly. Here’s how:

1. Install the Windows AIK for Beta 2
2. Create a folder on your hard drive (for this example I will use C:\5384, which is the build number for Beta 2). Create a subfolder under that called Mount (so C:\5384\Mount).
3. Copy the Boot.wim file from the Beta 2 DVD to the C:\5384 folder. Boot.wim is in the sources folder on the DVD.
4. You’ll need the VMWare drivers. To get them, either use your favorite mount tools such as VCD, Daemon Tools, etc. to mount the “C:\Program Files\VMWare\VMWare Workstation\Windows.iso” file. An alternate method is to boot a working VM and assign the CD drive to be the Windows.iso and copy the files that way. From that ISO copy the following:
5. ISO file root\Program Files\VMWare\VMWare Tools\Drivers\vmxnet\win2k. Copy all the files in that folder to C:\5384\vmnet
6. Pull up a command prompt and execute “C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\imagex.exe” /mountrw c:\5384\boot.wim 2 c:\5384\mount
7. Now in the command prompt execute: 
   “C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe” /inf=c:\5384\vmnet\vmxnet.inf c:\5384\mount\windows
8. Next execute this:
   “C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe” /inf=c:\5384\vmnet\vmxnet.inf c:\5384\mount\windows
9. Last, run “C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\imagex.exe” /unmount /commit c:\5384\mount
10. Once that finishes, you will have a Boot.wim where the 2^nd image in it (the Vista Setup) contains the files needed to support the VMWare Workstation network card. Import that updated boot.wim (c:\5384\boot.wim) into your WDS server and give it a unique name. Select that boot.wim when you are network booting your VM and install Vista quickly.

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