Here’s how to setup shared folders on a VirtualBox installation. I’ll take it one step further and map it to a drive that reconnects on logon, forcing it to be a persistent share.
First, setup guest additions with “Devices”, “Install guest additions”
Now share a folder on your host PC or Mac. Do this by creating a folder anywhere you like (let’s call it “vbshared”) and giving it at least read permissions. Read/write is fine too.
On Windows boxes, make sure that everyone has access, this can be locked down later if required.
Now we go back to VirtualBox and do “Devices”, “Shared folders” and under machine folders we add the one we just setup (vbshared). Tick “Make permanent” and OK both windows.
Now we’re going to restart the host PC, restart the VirtualBox (don’t just fire up a snapshot) and if the image is a Windows one, open up Explorer. In the address bar at the top, type in:
\\VBOXSVR\vbshared
Press enter and you should see it pop up. Now we can map it to a drive by “Tools”, “Map network drive”, select a drive (eg z:) and retype the \\VBOXSVR\vbshared
Tick “Reconnect at logon” and there you have it, a working shared folder that maps to a drive and reconnects at logon!
For Linux machines, reinstalling Guest Additions often makes the share work afterwards.