Shared Folders Settings Panel

Choose: VM > Settings > Options > Shared Folders

Shared folders provide an easy way to share files among virtual machines, and between virtual machines and the host.

This panel includes the following settings:

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Folder Sharing – Select Enabled until next power off or suspend if you want to enable folder sharing temporarily, until you shut down, suspend, or restart the virtual machine. You need to select either this option or Always enabled if you want to enable or disable specific folders in the Folders section.

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Folders – Even when folder sharing is enabled, you can disable sharing of specific folders. To enable a folder, first select one of the Folder Sharing buttons for enabling folder sharing, and then select the check box next to the name of the folder you want to share. Deselect the check box if you don’t want to share the folder.

 

Note To use shared folders, you must have the current version of VMware Tools installed in the guest operating system. For information on installing VMware Tools, see the VMware Workstation User’s Manual.

Access to files in the shared folder is also governed by permission settings on the host computer. For example, if you are running VMware Workstation as a user named User, the virtual machine can read and write files in the shared folder only if User has permission to read and write them. For detailed information about permissions, see the VMware Workstation User’s Manual.

You can use shared folders to share any type of file. Some older guest operating systems to not support using shared folders. For a list of the supported guest operating systems, see the section about shared folders in the VMware Workstation User’s Manual.

Guidelines for Creating Shared Folders

When adding and using shared folders:

•	The directories you add as shared folders can be on the host computer or they can be network directories accessible from the host computer.

•	To set up a folder for sharing between virtual machines, configure each virtual machine to use the same directory on the host system (or on the network).

•	To create a shared folder, click Add. On Linux, the Shared Folder Properties dialog box appears. Use the following information to help you complete the fields:

•	Name — This is the name that appears inside the virtual machine.

•	Host folder — The path on the host to the directory you want to share.

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Enable this share — You might want to add a folder to the list without enabling it immediately. In this case, deselect this option to disable the shared folder without deleting it from the virtual machine configuration. You can then enable the folder at any time by clicking its name in this list, clicking Properties, and enabling the folder in the Properties dialog box.

•	Read-only — Select this option to prevent the virtual machine from changing the contents of the shared folder in the host file system. Access to files in the shared folder is also governed by permission settings on the host computer.

If you ever what to change these properties, you can use the Properties dialog box to do so. Select the desired shared folder, and click Properties.

Location of Shared Folders on the Guest Operating System

Shared folders appear differently, depending on the guest operating system:

•	To use a shared folder in a Windows guest operating system, use Windows Explorer to look in My Network Places > Entire Network (Network Neighborhood for a Windows NT guest) under VMware Shared Folders.

For example, if you specify the name Test files for one of your shared folders, you can navigate to it on Windows XP guest system by opening My Network Places > Entire Network > VMware Shared Folders > .host > Shared Folders > Test files.

You can also go directly to the folder using the UNC path
\\.host\Shared Folders\Test files. In the guest operating system, you can map a drive letter to the folder.

•	To use a shared folder in a Linux guest operating system, navigate to /mnt/hgfs.

For example, if you specify the name Test_files for one of your shared folders it would appear in your Linux guest as /mnt/hgfs/Test_files.

•	To use a shared folder in a Solaris guest operating system, navigate to /hgfs.

For example, if you specify the name Test_files for one of your shared folders it would appear in your Solaris guest as /hgfs/Test_files.

Enabling and Disabling Shared Folders

If you download or move a virtual machine that someone else created and the virtual machine has shared folders, by default the shared folders will be disabled until you specifically enable them.

This is a security precaution because a shared folder could enable existing programs inside the virtual machine to access the host file system without your knowledge. To change this default behavior, choose Edit > Preferences > Workspace, and use the check box called Enable all shared folders by default.

It is recommended that you enable or disable shared folders on a per-virtual-machine basis or on a per-shared-folder basis:

•	To enable or disable all shared folders for a specific virtual machine, select the virtual machine and choose VM > Settings > Options > Shared Folders, and use the check boxes in the Folder Sharing section.

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To enable or disable a particular shared folder on a particular virtual machine, select the virtual machine and choose VM > Settings > Options > Shared Folders, select the shared folder, and click Properties. Use the Enabled check box for that shared folder to enable or disable the folder. Also use this dialog box to make the folder read-only.

Shared Folders Properties (or Add a Shared Folder) Dialog Box

Choose: VM > Settings > Options > Shared Folders > Properties (or Add)

Use the controls in this dialog box to change the settings for a shared folder used by this virtual machine:

•	Name and Host Folder — Use these text boxes to change the name or location of the shared folder on the host system.

•	Enabled — When this check box is selected, the contents of the shared folder are available to the current virtual machine.

•	Read-only — When this check box is selected, the current virtual machine can view and copy files from the shared folder but cannot add, change, or remove files.