Since we have enabled the Auto-Mount during the setup of the shared folder in VirtualBox, this shared folder will be automatically mounted when you start the virtual machine, the Windows OS, in this example. Access VirtualBox shared folder from Windows guest OS

Auto-mount: When checked, the guest OS will try to automatically mount the shared folder on startup.Ĭlick on OK to add a shared folder in VirtualBox.

By default, the shared folders are given the full access rights, including writing and modifying of the content, but by setting the Read Only checkbox you can restrict the rights of the user, in such a way limiting his possibilities to the allowed level.

Read-only: When checked, the guest OS will not be able to write to the specified shared folder.

You will see two options below the folder name: Optionally change or enter a different folder name if you like. Launch the VirtualBox program on your Mac.īrowse to a folder of your choice in the folder path. Create a shared folder in VirtualBox on Mac In this article, I will show you how to create a VirtualBox shared folder on Mac, the host, and access the shared folder from a Windows virtual machine, the guest OS. You just need to save the files to the shared folder on the host computer, then access them from any virtual machines created with VirtualBox. Meanwhile it serves as a way to expand the available storage for your virtual machines as you don’t need to store the various copies of the same files on different virtual machines. It is easy to setup, even a non-techie can easily setup a shared folder using VirtualBox.

Sharing folders between VirtualBox hosts and guests isn’t nearly as hard as you think. However if you need to transfer files frequently between the host computer and virtual machine, a shared folder is the best choice. For example, you can upload the files from the guest or host OS to a cloud service, then download them to the other OS you can also use USB drive to transfer files between host OS and guest OS. There are different ways to achieve that. Sometimes, you may need to exchange files between VirtualBox VM and host system.

Virtualbox share files