As a security precaution, a shared folder is disabled by default if it was not created by the user who powers on the virtual machine. Folder sharing is also disabled by default for Workstation 5.x virtual machines, regardless of who created the virtual machine.

To enable shared folders that were created by other users, select Edit > Preferences > Workstation and select Enable all shared folders by default.

After this setting is enabled, you can specify which virtual machines can share folders and which folders can be shared.

Important: Enabling all shared folders can pose a security risk because a shared folder might enable existing programs inside the virtual machine to access the host file system without your knowledge.