The file system type to use for the shared folder is vboxsf.

In the guest OS use the mount command with a user that has the necessary privileges to mount a file system. Now that the shared folder has been created start up the guest operating system to continue. Once you have the folder path and name click the OK button to continue.Īfter the folder has been selected click the OK button at the bottom of the Settings dialog to complete the Shared Folder set up. You can make the share read only by checking the check box next to Read-only. The name you provide for the share will be used to mount shared folder in the guest. On the Add Share dialog you can either type in the path of the folder to share or browse to it by clicking the down arrow on the right of the Folder Path field. Click this button to add the shared folder. On the Shared Folders settings page there is a green folder with a plus on the right of the screen. On the VM Settings page, click the Shared Folders section. If you have more than one virtual machine created select the VM that you wish to set up the shared folder and then click the Settings gear. This document assumes VirtualBox is already installed on the host and a guest VM with Linux has been created with the Guest Additions installed.

This document will detail how to share a folder residing on the host machine with the guest. You can find out more about VirtualBox and download the software from The computer that you install VirtualBox on is commonly called the host machine and the virtual machine is called the guest machine. Using VirtualBox you can install many x86 32bit and 64bit operation systems in a virtual machine. VirtualBox is an Open Source x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product.

Virtual machine shared folder