The GUI of VMWare Player does not allow you to change the default location of your new VMs. However, a modification to the preferences file can.
Open up the following file in your favorite text editor:
%Appdata%\VMware\preferences.ini
Add in the following line, changing the path to your desired location:
prefvmx.defaultvmpath = "D:\Virtual Machines\VMWare Player"
Save, restart VMWare Player, and your new location should work when creating a new VM.
This has been tested on VMWare Player 6.
Still working with vmware player 16
Dude, you’re the best! I have been tormented for so long with this! Thanks!!
Still works on VMware Workstation 15 Player
fwiw it works in the linux VMWare Player 14 as well.
edit the file:
~/.vmware/preferences
Add the property:
prefvmx.defaultvmpath = “/home/user/VMs/”
Still works on VMware Workstation 14 Player
This still works on VMware workstation 12 player as of 2016.