VirtualBox: access shared folders from Windows XP guest OS
September 28th, 2007
From the VirtualBox's menu, go to Devices → Shared Folders... to add/remove the folders of the host operating system that you would like to share with the guest operating system (Windows XP, in this example). When done click Ok.
Now we are going to access the folders we added. DO NOT open My Network Places! Instead open a new explorer instance. You can do that by pressing WinKey-E or by executing the explorer command (Start → Run... → type "explorer" → Ok). You should see a windows that looks like this:
Now, carefully click on the expand icon (
) right next to My Network Places. Make sure you click exactly on the expand icon. If you accidentally clicked on My Network Places, you ruined everything and you will have to go back and start all over again. After expanding the My Network Places branch, you should be able to see Entire Network right underneath:
Now expand the Entire Network branch, too, and you should be able to see VirtualBox Shared Folders:
Open VirtualBox Shared Folders. Normally, you should be able to see your shared folders in there.
Now we are going to access the folders we added. DO NOT open My Network Places! Instead open a new explorer instance. You can do that by pressing WinKey-E or by executing the explorer command (Start → Run... → type "explorer" → Ok). You should see a windows that looks like this:
Now, carefully click on the expand icon (
) right next to My Network Places. Make sure you click exactly on the expand icon. If you accidentally clicked on My Network Places, you ruined everything and you will have to go back and start all over again. After expanding the My Network Places branch, you should be able to see Entire Network right underneath:
Now expand the Entire Network branch, too, and you should be able to see VirtualBox Shared Folders:
Open VirtualBox Shared Folders. Normally, you should be able to see your shared folders in there.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:35 pm You're a genius!
From all WinXP bugs I've seen, this is one of the weirdest.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:57 am thanks
April 24th, 2008 at 9:42 pm YES!! The company Innotec dont help out but this does!
July 20th, 2008 at 11:08 pm Hiya. Sorry, but this method doesn't work out with me. Am using OS X host and Win XP guest and just cannot connect to the shared folder using Explorer. Do you have any alternative ideas?
Cheers.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:50 pm Hi b.qiya, I have the same woeful problem...:(
August 6th, 2008 at 5:18 pm tis works! thx
September 4th, 2008 at 7:37 pm Thanks for this. It worked for me
September 5th, 2008 at 11:43 pm Hello, thank you very much for your posting. It really helped.
To hell with all those other so called fkin' geeks on the Internet who, instead of helping you out, rather confuse the hell out of you. If you don't know, don't fkin' write and waste our time. If you know what you are writing, then write it like this post -- simple solution that actually gets thing done.
Thanks again
September 26th, 2008 at 6:00 pm It seems that the 1.6.0 works but versions above may not. More details here : http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/313
October 5th, 2008 at 7:57 am Thanks a lot !!!
October 8th, 2008 at 5:01 am thanks! I got virtualbox to run fine, and was pissed when I couldn't find my shared folder under windows. Now I got all my files up and running sweet thanks again!
October 12th, 2008 at 7:43 pm THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!! I couldn't figure out why the shared folders weren't working. You're awesome.
October 13th, 2008 at 6:19 am I can't believe this worked. I've been working all day on this problem and these simple steps did the trick.
Thanks!
October 26th, 2008 at 8:27 am Thank you Giannis for this post.
I almost gave up before I found this page. Most of the instructions out there are very complicated.
This post is simple, to the point and it worked for me. I am using OS X as the host.
November 8th, 2008 at 4:23 am Thx buddy. It solved my problem. Thx alot
November 13th, 2008 at 11:24 pm Thank you giannis, you have saved me a lot of time and effort pointing this bug. I knew I had it working once but could remember what I did.
November 21st, 2008 at 12:00 am Great! This is great Thanks!
December 9th, 2008 at 12:42 am i ve got micro xp and it dosn't work. anybody know how to install "net use"?
December 20th, 2008 at 3:24 pm Wow, I looked for this all day and came across your help - quite easy and it works. Thanks!!!
December 21st, 2008 at 1:36 am Thank you for this clever solution! All the other suggestions just said "Click on Network Places". When I did that, my shared folders didn't appear. Only you were able to anticipate this difficulty and help me and a lot of others solve this problem.
December 30th, 2008 at 9:09 am It does not work for me. I'm in Vista running XP with VirtualBox 2.1.0. I don't see the shared folders under My network using your method. Virtual PC seems more intuitive for file transfer btw systems that you can drag and drop to either one, although VirtualBox feels faster. Any solution to the problem I'm having?
December 30th, 2008 at 9:57 am It turns out that I need to install Guest Additions in order to use the shared folders function. It's working now after I did that. Thanks for the instruction.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:21 pm Excellent! Got me unwedged. Thank you very much.
Dominik
January 13th, 2009 at 12:02 am Came really close to giving up too and this solved my problem perfectly. Thanks!
January 26th, 2009 at 6:34 pm You saved my life.
I am using Virtualbox 2.1.2 and running winxp on Ubuntu 8.10. Wasted about an hour trying to figure out this.
I shared the folder and couldnt find it by going to network places or by manually typing \\vboxsvr\.
This is really weird bug. Thanks again for your post!
February 4th, 2009 at 3:06 am If you don't want to have to do that every time, you can use the option "Map Network drive" to map a drive letter to it. Then it can be accessed from My Computer. I did it from an "Open" dialog in Powerpoint (in the upper right).
February 5th, 2009 at 6:59 pm Doesn't work for me, I don't see the "VirtualBox Shared Folders".
February 6th, 2009 at 9:50 am i see nothing on osx host, xp guest, guest additions installed. has anyone succeeded with an osx host?
February 9th, 2009 at 7:01 pm Thank you very much!
All works fine. It's wonderful bug from Microsoft!
February 11th, 2009 at 1:16 am Works like a charm, thanks.
February 11th, 2009 at 9:20 pm Works like a charm. Thanks i've spent 3 days trying to get this to work. Now just need to get fedora to see windows on Virtualbox now :)
February 14th, 2009 at 8:49 pm Yeah nice :) Helped me out much.... searched the complete "my computer" but didn't find any drive haha-...
February 21st, 2009 at 6:53 pm Thanks ! The funny thing is you need to follow this to the letter otherwise it doesn't work. I couldn't believe this at first...
March 5th, 2009 at 7:15 am Yeah... this didn't work at all for me.
April 11th, 2009 at 1:31 am [...] to running Windows apps seamlessly inside Linux. Giannis Tsakiris has also explained setting up sharing from an XP guest, and the process is much the same for any virtual Windows (although some of the network tools have [...]
April 11th, 2009 at 2:12 am [...] to running Windows apps seamlessly inside Linux. Giannis Tsakiris has also explained setting up sharing from an XP guest, and the process is much the same for any virtual Windows (although some of the network tools have [...]
April 11th, 2009 at 2:23 am [...] to running Windows apps seamlessly inside Linux. Giannis Tsakiris has also explained setting up sharing from an XP guest, and the process is much the same for any virtual Windows (although some of the network tools have [...]
April 11th, 2009 at 2:38 am [...] to running Windows apps seamlessly inside Linux. Giannis Tsakiris has also explained setting up sharing from an XP guest, and the process is much the same for any virtual Windows (although some of the network tools have [...]
April 11th, 2009 at 3:01 am [...] to running Windows apps seamlessly inside Linux. Giannis Tsakiris has also explained setting up sharing from an XP guest, and the process is much the same for any virtual Windows (although some of the network tools have [...]
April 11th, 2009 at 3:27 am [...] to running Windows apps seamlessly inside Linux. Giannis Tsakiris has also explained setting up sharing from an XP guest, and the process is much the same for any virtual Windows (although some of the network tools have [...]
April 11th, 2009 at 4:56 am [...] to running Windows apps seamlessly inside Linux. Giannis Tsakiris has also explained setting up sharing from an XP guest, and the process is much the same for any virtual Windows (although some of the network tools have [...]
April 11th, 2009 at 6:07 pm [...] to running Windows apps seamlessly inside Linux. Giannis Tsakiris has also explained setting up sharing from an XP guest, and the process is much the same for any virtual Windows (although some of the network tools have [...]
April 12th, 2009 at 9:48 am the problem is insisting on VB 2.2.0 installed on Mac OS X, hosting windows xp; shared folder doesn't show up under "entire network"
April 13th, 2009 at 2:08 pm [...] to running Windows apps seamlessly inside Linux. Giannis Tsakiris has also explained setting up sharing from an XP guest, and the process is much the same for any virtual Windows (although some of the network tools have [...]
May 1st, 2009 at 10:32 am Thanks a lot!
It works for me - Windows XP SP1 as a guest, Ubuntu 9.04 as a host.
May 18th, 2009 at 6:08 am Thank You, Thank You, did I say Thank You.
I have been trying to copy stuff all day, searches by google kept pointing me in the wrong direction. It seems that with every release of VB there was a different way to copy between the os's. Thank you again.
May 22nd, 2009 at 4:57 pm THANK YOU!!!!!
June 8th, 2009 at 4:15 am Hi,
Thanks so much. My tech guy got everything right except this last crucial bit of information. I learned that you cannot use a search in XP to find these shared files. Nor do they turn up in the program files.
June 19th, 2009 at 3:27 pm This seems to be solved in SP3.
June 20th, 2009 at 7:22 am Thank you VERY much. Extreme help!!!
June 25th, 2009 at 8:01 pm Thanks for your information. I had some problem while moving large files between guest OS to host OS using USB drives. Now my problem will be solved. Once again Thank you to all who may work for this....
by,
V.Rajasekaran
July 10th, 2009 at 8:28 am thank's for this wonderful post, same as others i also encounter other post which are of no effect.
more power
July 25th, 2009 at 1:26 am thank you for the post, i was very helpful.
July 25th, 2009 at 1:26 am "it was" of course :)
July 28th, 2009 at 2:16 pm YOU ARE AWESOME!!!! thank you so much :()
July 29th, 2009 at 8:39 am Thanks a lot.
It's help me more.
August 8th, 2009 at 11:00 pm Thanks a lot!!! This helped!!!
August 9th, 2009 at 12:50 pm p liu pointed correctly that guest additions are required; access command to install additions from virtualbox host menu, download additions iso, mount it when prompted. this will start installation inside windows. after reboot works fine (thou you still need to do the magic). thanks giannis for posting.
(kubuntu(xp))
August 27th, 2009 at 8:02 pm It works perfectly...thanx.....
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:24 pm I installed VirtualBox 3.4 and XP on my Mac OS Snow Leopard. I am not able to find Shared folder in my XP. I tried all the solutions from above threads, but no use. Can some one help me please to share the folder with my Mac OS and XP.
September 5th, 2009 at 12:53 am Also have micro xp and have the same problem. instructions do not work,
September 5th, 2009 at 1:26 pm Γιάννη, ευχαριστώ πάρα πολύ για αυτήν την συμβουλή. Πράγματι από το Network Places δεν βγάζεις άκρη. Αντιμετωπίζω όμως ένα άλλο πρόβλημα. Ενώ από τον κοινό φάκελο μπορώ να αντιγράψω τα αρχεία που έχω ρίξει μέσα για να πάνε στον εικονικό, δεν μπορώ από τον εικονικό να ρίξω μέσα σε αυτόν τον φάκελο αρχεία και να τα πάρω μετά από τον κανονικό μου Η/Υ.
September 8th, 2009 at 11:38 am thanks, you saved me some troubles
September 10th, 2009 at 3:31 pm Its Wonderful.. made my work.. Any guess how to use the LAN card for sniffing through virtual PC
September 12th, 2009 at 8:21 pm Thanks!
September 13th, 2009 at 4:54 am Hi
Thanks work out perfect,
Regards Kundaliniboy
September 18th, 2009 at 3:39 am Thanks!
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:33 pm ohhh cheers man! life saver!
September 23rd, 2009 at 9:55 pm You are a genius, really really thanks!
October 1st, 2009 at 10:12 am You, my man, are a genius. Thank you very much.
October 5th, 2009 at 4:48 pm Worked like a CHARM
on ubuntu host
THANK you
October 6th, 2009 at 1:32 am Thanks, worked beautifully virtual xp on ubuntu 9.04 host
October 7th, 2009 at 6:19 am It didn't work at first, but now it does.
I think you have to install "Guest additions" first. You should probably mention that.
October 7th, 2009 at 9:41 am Works awesome, thanks!
October 12th, 2009 at 5:56 am Nice work. Now I'm running both Windows XP and Ubuntu guests on my Mac Snow Leopard host. Technology is amazing.
PV: Remember to 'Machine' - "Install Guest Additions' - then reboot. Everything worked for me the first time.
For those with an Ubuntu guest, you have to use terminal to mount the shared folders. If you want to have the shared folders mount on boot up, you have to alter your etc/modules and etc/fstab files (see How do I automatically mount my shared folder?).
November 8th, 2009 at 10:58 am Now when you see Virtual Box shared folders, right click on any of folder, and click "MAP NETWORK DRIVE". You will see this drive when you will click "My computer" with no need to go again to explorer.
November 13th, 2009 at 11:35 pm Cheers. You just stopped me tearing out what's left of my hair.
November 15th, 2009 at 10:31 am [...] to running Windows apps seamlessly inside Linux. Giannis Tsakiris has also explained setting up sharing from an XP guest, and the process is much the same for any virtual Windows (although some of the network tools have [...]
November 22nd, 2009 at 9:26 pm Wonderful.. Thank you.
November 24th, 2009 at 2:30 am Cheers! I thought I was going mad not being able to figure this out!
November 27th, 2009 at 1:21 pm Cheers indeed, one hell of a weird bug that one oO
November 28th, 2009 at 5:15 am Great. After testing my patience on trying to find a manual where everybody is running linux as guest.. This is what was needed.
Thanks.. merci.. .. and I owe you a beer... KEG ... :)
November 28th, 2009 at 7:52 pm thanks dude! it was so easy, but oh so hidden :)
November 29th, 2009 at 12:10 pm Wow man, this is amazing! Thank you very much! This has been bugging me the whole day! :) There are no words!
December 5th, 2009 at 12:02 am This method does not work with OS X host. Alternatively you can open cmd and map folder manually:
net use v: \\vboxsvr\name_of_your_share
Works also with OS X host and all Windows 7 guest.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:13 am Written on 12/12/09
Sir, you are very amazing and clever. You figured out something that no one could have. I say, when you
read this comment, you should be proud of yourself and you wonderful talents, whether you are a Christian or not.
I do really want to emphasize this when no one could but only because you already spent alot of time figuring this out. I just want to say thank for you help. Even Google appreciates this because I found your site there.
Well, I you don't mind....make a website of how to fix stuff and do stuff that nobody understands, like tech wizard.
I hope you have a great time. Merry Christmas!
January 5th, 2010 at 3:36 am Nothing worked until I downloaded the "guest additions" iso from the lower right corner of the host window. Now the shared folder shows up in network places and some other neat things work too, like mouse capture, where I don't have to click on the guest OS for it to capture/uncapture the mouse, it happens automatically. Neat!
January 5th, 2010 at 4:23 pm wow.... this did the trick and solved.
Best solution.
Thanks for taking your time to show it to us
January 9th, 2010 at 12:11 am Excellent solution to a strange tricky problem. Only showed up on 2nd account, thought it might be a permission issue. Great job!
January 13th, 2010 at 5:03 am big cheers .. appreciated!
January 16th, 2010 at 8:25 am Rockon! thanks!
January 21st, 2010 at 6:48 pm [...] You can definitely access your host hard drives as Steve mentioned. Make sure you install the Vbox Tools on the guest OS.
January 24th, 2010 at 1:26 pm Thankx for the help dude! Nice post really worked!!!!!!!!
February 4th, 2010 at 1:06 am Thanks mate, great tutorial.
I was messing around with this for hours.
February 5th, 2010 at 11:57 pm Well done....but addons have to be installed if using virtualbox 3
February 18th, 2010 at 9:52 am This is an outstanding solution. Thanks!
February 20th, 2010 at 10:20 pm Thank you, I can unbend my mind now.
March 1st, 2010 at 9:29 pm have mac OS x, hosting windows xp, it worked fine thanks,
remember to install guest additions:
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/virtualbox-guest-addons.html
thanks again
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:16 am Thanks a lot, this helped
March 3rd, 2010 at 4:34 am Despite this post being an old post I have to really thank you for this! It worked when everything else failed. Thanks!!!!
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:20 am Thank god for this post! Luckily it is the first one I read, and it works beautifully!
April 1st, 2010 at 12:19 pm Hi Man,
your advice really works, this is the only way I was able to transfer files from Windows Vista (Host) to Windows XP (Guest).
Thanks a lot!
April 1st, 2010 at 9:03 pm Doesn't work for me :(.
April 2nd, 2010 at 1:43 pm great !! I love you man.. saves my huge time
April 14th, 2010 at 2:56 am Thank you Sir, i rarely Post any Comments but your Post made my day ;) Thanks again!
April 21st, 2010 at 1:04 am you are a genius.
thanks
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:29 am [...] 1040; [Log in to get rid of this advertisement] I've tried to follow the instructions listed on http://www.giannistsakiris.com/index...s-xp-guest-os/ with no luck. The main problem shows up when I get to step 3 where you "expand the Entire [...]
April 24th, 2010 at 5:01 pm This is my first post ever. but i had to . U have no idea how much this helped me . My whole project work n graduation program was at stake . thank u so so so so much I really do love you.......
u r a life saver....................
May 5th, 2010 at 4:50 am Thanks a lot :)
May 6th, 2010 at 7:14 am Repeating what everyone said positively about these instructions but loudly. THANK YOU!!
May 16th, 2010 at 6:20 am It help me a lot
Thanks
May 17th, 2010 at 4:23 am [...] un peu bizzare mais ça a marché comme ça : Lien (merci au mec qui l’a [...]
May 26th, 2010 at 11:43 am thanks so much,i cant say fairer
June 4th, 2010 at 2:43 am Thank you!
I was in trouble trying to access my host shared folders, and your solution worked just fine!
June 7th, 2010 at 1:41 pm You need to use Map Network Drive.
Follow these steps.
Open My Computer - Got to Tools Tab - Mapped Network Drive..
Driver: Z --- Any driver letter that you want
Folder: _________ -- click on Browse
Under Browse:
My Network Places
+ Entire Network
+ VirtualBox Shared Folder
--- Vboxsvr
June 7th, 2010 at 1:54 pm Or do the other way...
On the second picture above..
Click My Network Places, then right click Entire Network below that, then select Explore or Expand..
Now, you will be able to see VirtualBox shared folder..
Hehehehe.. Enjoy sharing.. :-P
June 13th, 2010 at 12:47 am Hi, this is sooooo amazing!! It finally works!! Thanx!! Cheers, Sven
June 18th, 2010 at 1:18 pm Tnx a lot :D nice post
June 25th, 2010 at 7:18 pm Running on Fedora 11. The \\vboxsvr that kecheri suggested worked perfectly.
July 1st, 2010 at 5:26 am Thanks
thank you very much for Explain virtualbox it's great program and nice
July 10th, 2010 at 3:58 am Here is a tip if the "VirtualBox Shared Folders" entry does not show up along with Microsoft Terminal Services and others:
You need to install the Guest Additions! From the VirtualBox's menu, go to Devices → Install Guest Additions and keep clicking "next" and "continue anyway" etc. (as i understand it, this will install some additional software not from SUN).
After that you may have to reboot, and the "VirtualBox Shared Folders" entry should be visible as described in this article.
July 15th, 2010 at 4:16 pm Thanks a lot. This solved my problem!
September 1st, 2010 at 7:57 am Thank you!!! It is finally working. You are a genius!!!
September 2nd, 2010 at 5:15 am that's very helpful, thank you!