With shared folders, you can easily share files between a virtual machine and the host computer. To use shared folders, configure your virtual machine settings to enable shared folders and specify which directories are to be shared.
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. Select or deselect the
Enabled check box for the shared folder that you want to enable or disable. You can also modify this and other folder properties from the Properties dialog box (described next).
In a Windows guest operating system, you can view shared folders using desktop icons. Look in
My Network Places > Entire Network (
Network Neighborhood for a Windows NT guest, or
Network for Windows Vista) under
VMware Shared Folders.
If you have trouble finding a shared folder using the desktop icon, open Windows Explorer and look in
My Network Places (or
Network Neighborhood).
For example, if you specify the name Test files for one of your shared folders, you can navigate to it on the guest system by opening
My Network Places > Entire Network > VMware Shared Folders > .host > Shared Folders > Test files.
On the guest system, you can map a shared folder to a drive letter just as you would with a network share. In Windows Explorer, choose
Tools > Map Network Drive and browse to the location of the shared folder. The shared folder is located at
\\.host\Shared Folders.
On a Linux guest, shared folders appear under
/mnt/hgfs.
To change the settings for a shared folder on the list, click the folder’s name to highlight it and click
Properties. The Properties dialog box appears. After making changes, click
OK.