How can I access a shared folder from VMware workstation?

First, the folders won't show up in My network places directly, you need to click on the Entire network link in the left hand pane. If that doesn't work you might try and open the folder directly using the unc path.

In my test machine this looked like

\\vmware-host\Shared Folders\foldername

vmware-host is the actual name you want to use, it's not a placeholder for your host machine. foldername is the name you gave to the folder when you shared it in vmware.

If you still cannot get it to work you might need to re-install the vmware tools. Go to VM->Reinstall vmware tools and in the guest machine you select to uninstall the tools. Reboot the machine when it's done and install the tools again and you shares should be working.

You could try typing in the the UNC address into Start>Run.