VirtualBox Windows 7 Shared Folders

One essential need when you use virtualization software is to have the ability to share folders between the main Operating System and the Guest OS. VirtualBox has a neat feature to do just that. However, when Windows 7 is the guest OS, you won’t find the shared folder in Network Places. When you add a shared folder using the VirtualBox interface, it has indeed been added but you just have to do one more step to be able to access it.

For completion purpose, I’ll show you how to add a folder to the shared folders using VirualBox and the small trick to actually access it.

Adding a VirtualBox Shared folder,

1. Select “Devices” from the the VirtualBox menu bar, then click “Shared Folders…”
2. In the “Shared Folders” dialog, click the “Add Shared Folder” button
3. For the “Folder path” click the down arrow, then select “Other…”
4. Browse to the folder you want to share, then click the “OK” button to select it. Assume that the name of the folder is “VBShare”
5. Click the “OK” button for the “Add Share” dialog
6. then click the “OK” button to close the “Shared folders” dialog

Accessing the Shared Folder,

1. Go to “Computer”, (Start, Computer)
2. From the toolbar, click the “Map network drive” button
3. For the “Folder” field, copy and paste “\\vboxsrv\VBShare” to it (without the quotes). Where “VBShare” is the shared folder that has been added in this article (use the name of what you have actually added)
4. Click the “Finish” button

You will see that the shared folder has opened immediately, but also look to the “Computer” window and notice the New drive added under the “Network Location” section. So, now you can access the shared folder from here or you can take a shortcut of it to your desktop (the guest OS desktop) for convenient access.