Windows 10 Guest OS Customizations Remove vNIC from VM

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Windows 10 VM Guest OS customizations can result in the removal of the vNIC from the VM. 

Environment

• The Edit Settings pane in the vSphere/ESXi web GUI shows the NIC as not Connected.
• The log file for the VM (/vmfs/volumes/<datastore_name>/<VM_name>/vmware.log) shows the following entry (date and timestamps will be different than example below): 
  • 2025-04-17T18:28:18.100Z In(05) vmx - DEPLOYPKG: ToolsDeployPkgPublishState: state=4, code=100, message=C:/WINDOWS/TEMP/vmware-imc/guestcust.log@Error opening file C:\WINDOWS\Panther\unattend.xmlThe system cannot find the path specified.
• From within the Guest OS where the network connection status will appear as Disconnected.
• Device Manager > General from within the Guest OS shows the vmxnet3 device with the status "Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged (Code 19)"
  • Example: 

 

 

Cause

This issue can occur for one of two known reasons:

1. The directory path C:\Windows\Panther does not exist on the Guest OS. This is a required directory for package deployments. 
2. A local Administrator account does not exist on the Guest OS.

Resolution

Ensure that both the C:\Windows\Panther file directory exists and that a local Administrator account exists on the VM's Guest OS.