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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:

windows explorer screenshot



Now, carefully click on the expand icon (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:

windows explorer screenshot


Now expand the Entire Network branch, too, and you should be able to see VirtualBox Shared Folders:

windows explorer screenshot


Open VirtualBox Shared Folders. Normally, you should be able to see your shared folders in there.

This entry was posted by giannis on September 28, 2007 at 3:34 pm under uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

23 Comments

  1. Dhakir says:

    You're a genius!
    From all WinXP bugs I've seen, this is one of the weirdest. April 23, 2008, 11:35 pm

  2. ranjeet sih says:

    thanks April 24, 2008, 11:57 am

  3. J says:

    YES!! The company Innotec dont help out but this does! April 24, 2008, 9:42 pm

  4. b.qiya says:

    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 20, 2008, 11:08 pm

  5. Aaron Ortiz says:

    Hi b.qiya, I have the same woeful problem...:( July 21, 2008, 10:50 pm

  6. Grub says:

    tis works! thx August 6, 2008, 5:18 pm

  7. Ginger says:

    Thanks for this. It worked for me September 4, 2008, 7:37 pm

  8. The One says:

    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 5, 2008, 11:43 pm

  9. Olivier Berger says:

    It seems that the 1.6.0 works but versions above may not. More details here : http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/313 September 26, 2008, 6:00 pm

  10. Nikhil Khullar says:

    Thanks a lot !!! October 5, 2008, 7:57 am

  11. rca says:

    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 8, 2008, 5:01 am

  12. brandon says:

    THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!! I couldn't figure out why the shared folders weren't working. You're awesome. October 12, 2008, 7:43 pm

  13. Czadd says:

    I can't believe this worked. I've been working all day on this problem and these simple steps did the trick.

    Thanks! October 13, 2008, 6:19 am

  14. Fritz says:

    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. October 26, 2008, 8:27 am

  15. smv says:

    Thx buddy. It solved my problem. Thx alot November 8, 2008, 4:23 am

  16. Peter says:

    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 13, 2008, 11:24 pm

  17. Fred says:

    Great! This is great Thanks! November 21, 2008, 12:00 am

  18. anonim says:

    i ve got micro xp and it dosn't work. anybody know how to install "net use"? December 9, 2008, 12:42 am

  19. vanfbkr says:

    Wow, I looked for this all day and came across your help - quite easy and it works. Thanks!!! December 20, 2008, 3:24 pm

  20. Garry says:

    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 21, 2008, 1:36 am

  21. p liu says:

    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 30, 2008, 9:09 am

  22. p liu says:

    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. December 30, 2008, 9:57 am

  23. Dominik Wujastyk says:

    Excellent! Got me unwedged. Thank you very much.

    Dominik January 2, 2009, 9:21 pm

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