While VirtualBox and VMware are both free, they aren't equally free. For this comparison, we'll be looking at Oracle VM VirtualBox 6.1 and VMware Workstation Player 16. To view a shared folder in a Windows guest OS, go to Windows Browser > Network.In this post, we'll compare both of them and help you decide which one you should use. The virtual machine can view and copy files from the shared folder, but it cannot add, change, or remove files.Ī shared folder appears differently, depending on the guest operating system type and version. Read-only – makes the shared folder read-only.Deselect this option when you want to disable the shared folder without deleting it from the virtual machine configuration. Enable this share – enables the shared folder.Type the path on the host system to the directory you want to share and specify its name: To do that, select the Map as a network drive in Windows guests option.Ħ. (Optional) You can also map the drive to the Shared Folders directory that contains all shared folders. Note that if the virtual machine is restarted, shared folders will remain enabled.Ĥ. Enabled until next power off or suspend – enable folder sharing temporarily, until the virtual machine is shut down, suspended, or powered off.Always enabled – keeps folder sharing enabled, even when the virtual machine is shut down, suspended, or powered off.Under Folder sharing, choose a sharing option. Go to the Options tab and select the Shared Folders option:ģ. Choose the virtual machine and select Player > Manage > Virtual Machine Settings:Ģ. You can enable shared folders for a specific virtual machine.

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