Enable a Shared Folder for a Virtual Machine

You can enable folder sharing for a specific virtual machine. To set up a folder for sharing between virtual machines, you must configure each virtual machine to use the same directory on the host system or network share.

Note:

You cannot enable a shared folder for a shared or remote virtual machine.

Prerequisites

• Verify that the virtual machines use a guest operating system that supports shared folders. See Guest Operating Systems That Support Shared Folders.

• Verify that the latest version of VMware Tools is installed in the guest operating system.

• Verify that permission settings on the host system allow access to files in the shared folders. For example, if you are running Workstation Pro 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.

Procedure

1. Select the virtual machine and select VM > Settings.
2. On the Options tab, select Shared Folders.
3. Select a folder sharing option.

   Option	Description
   Always enabled	Keep folder sharing enabled, even when the virtual machine is shut down, suspended, or powered off.
   Enabled until next power off or suspend	Enable folder sharing temporarily, until you power off, suspend, or shut down the virtual machine. If you restart the virtual machine, shared folders remain enabled. This setting is available only when the virtual machine is powered on.

4. (Optional) To map a drive to the Shared Folders directory, select Map as a network drive in Windows guests.

   This directory contains all of the shared folders that you enable. Workstation Pro selects the drive letter.

5. Click Add to add a shared folder.

   On Windows hosts, the Add Shared Folder wizard starts. On Linux hosts, the Shared Folder Properties dialog box opens.

6. Type the path on the host system to the directory to share.

   If you specify a directory on a network share, such as D:\share, Workstation Pro always attempts to use that path. If the directory is later connected to the host on a different drive letter, Workstation Pro cannot locate the shared folder.

7. Specify the name of the shared folder as it should appear inside the virtual machine.

   Characters that the guest operating system considers illegal in a share name appear differently when viewed inside the guest. For example, if you use an asterisk in a share name, you see %002A instead of * in the share name on the guest. Illegal characters are converted to their ASCII hexadecimal value.

8. Select shared folder attributes.

   Option	Description
   Enable this share	Enable the shared folder. Deselect this option to disable a shared folder without deleting it from the virtual machine configuration.
   Read-only	Make the shared folder read-only. When this property is selected, the virtual machine can view and copy files from the shared folder, but it cannot add, change, or remove files. Access to files in the shared folder is also governed by permission settings on the host computer.

9. Click Finish to add the shared folder.

   The shared folder appears in the Folders list. The check box next to folder name indicates that the folder is being shared. You can deselect this check box to disable sharing for the folder.

10. Click OK to save your changes.

What to do next

View the shared folder. On Linux guests, shared folders appear under /mnt/hgfs. On Solaris guests, shared folders appear under /hgfs. To view shared folders on a Windows guest, see View Shared Folders in a Windows Guest.