Rubin Shrestha
Rubin Shrestha
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VMware Workstation Bridged Network Disconnects Immediately on Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (Windows 11)

by |Published

I am facing a persistent issue with VMware Workstation Pro on Windows 11. My Kali Linux guest machine cannot establish a Bridged network connection. Every time I start the VM, the network icon shows “Disconnected” immediately.
Hardware/OS Details:
Host OS: Windows 11
Guest OS: Kali Linux (Pre-built VMware image)
Network Adapter: Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz
What I have tried so far (with no luck):
Used Virtual Network Editor to manually bridge VMnet0 to the specific Intel Wi-Fi adapter (instead of Automatic).
Performed Restore Defaults in Virtual Network Editor multiple times.
Tried to reinstall/repair VMware Workstation.
Tried to re-install the VMware Bridge Protocol in Windows Network Adapter settings (Getting error: “The specified service has been marked for deletion”).
Ran netcfg -d in CMD as Administrator to reset network stack.
Disabled Hyper-V, Virtual Machine Platform, and Windows Hypervisor Platform.
Set a Static IP inside the Guest OS to match the host network range.
Note: This setup was working perfectly before. The NAT mode works fine and provides internet, but I specifically need Bridged Mode for penetration testing labs.
Is there a known conflict between the Intel AX201 drivers and VMware Bridging on Windows 11? How can I force the Bridge Protocol to reinstall properly?
Thanks in advance!

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