Setting up shared Folders (VM-Workstation)

What

this is a Notepad Version for later documentation containing an Extract from VM Workstation Help

Why

 I am working on setting up a BRITE on a VM  hosted on (sorry) Vista. Due to circumstances out of my control……;-) 

HowTo

Transferring Files and Text Between the Host and Guest : Using Shared Folders : Set Up Shared Folders

Set Up Shared Folders
Shared folders provide an easy way to share files among virtual machines, and between virtual machines and the host. The directories you add as shared folders can be on the host computer or they can be network directories accessible from the host computer.
Before you begin, make sure the following prerequisites are satisfied:

• Make sure the virtual machines use a guest operating system that supports shared folders. For a list of supported guest operating systems, see Using Shared Folders. 
• Verify that the current version of VMware Tools installed in the guest operating system. See Installing VMware Tools.
• Check permission settings. Access to files in the shared folder is governed by permission settings on the host computer. For example, if you are running Workstation 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. For information about how permission setting are mapped between Linux and Windows, see Improved Handling of Permissions.

To set up a folder for sharing between virtual machines, configure each virtual machine to use the same directory on the host system (or on the network).

To set up shared folders 

1.  Start Workstation and select a virtual machine.  
2. Choose VM > Settings.  
3. Click the Options tab and select Shared Folders.
4. (Optional) For easy access, select the Map as a network drive in Windows guests check box to map a drive to the Shared Folders directory.
   This directory contains all the shared folders you enable. The drive letter is selected automatically.
5. Click Add
   On Windows, clicking Add starts the Add Shared Folder wizard. On Linux, it opens the Shared Folder Properties dialog box.
6. Use the following information to complete the wizard or Properties dialog box:
   • Name – Name that appears 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.
   • Host folder – Path on the host to the directory that you want to share.
     If you specify a directory on a network share, such as D:\share, Workstation always attempts to use that path. If the directory is later connected to the host on a different drive letter, the shared folder cannot be located.
   • Enabled or Enable this share – Deselect this option to disable a shared folder without deleting it from the virtual machine configuration. You can enable the folder by selecting the check box next to its name in the list. 
     To enable a folder at a later time select its name in the list, click Properties, and enable the folder in the Properties dialog box.
   • Read-only – Select this option to prevent the virtual machine from changing the contents of the shared folder in the host file system. Access to files in the shared folder is also governed by permission settings on the host computer.
   • To change these properties, use the Properties dialog box. On Windows, after you select Shared Folders on the Options tab, click Properties.
7. (Optional) To enable shared folders for a virtual machine after a shared folder is created, on the Shared Folders settings panel, use the Folder Sharing section:
8. Select Enabled until next power off or suspend to enable folder sharing temporarily, until you power off or suspend the virtual machine. If you select Enabled until net power off or suspend and restart the guest or use the guest operating system to shut down, shared folders are not disabled when you restart the virtual machine.
9. Select Always enabled to enable or disable specific folders in the Folders section.

Access the enabled shared folder:

• For Windows guests, see View Shared Folders in a Windows Guest.
• On Linux guests, shared folders appear under /mnt/hgfs. 
• On Solaris guests, shared folders appear under /hgfs.