Solution that works for ANY VMWare installer :
1. start a DOS box ( by typing "cmd" in the Start button text field for example )
2. make a temp directory, for example, c:/temp
3. change directory to where you've downloaded VMWare Installer
4. extract the .msi installer from the .exe by running the following command in DOS
cmd /C <your VMWare Installer name>.exe -e c:/temp
5. when the command returns, you should see a "VMware Workstation.msi" and *.cab in c:/temp
6. Run VMware Workstation.msi by double clicking on it in Windows Explorer, or use msiexec
Done