Virtual PC 2007® SP1 allowed users to share a particular folder with the Virtual Machine (VM). In Windows® Virtual PC, users can enable sharing at drive level only.

Sharing a Folder on Windows 7 Desktop with a VM

To share a particular folder with the VM, follow steps as below

  1. Shutdown or Hibernate the VM (assuming you have Integration features enabled)
  2. Open command prompt on Windows7 host. Let’s say you want to share folder C:\MySharedFolder with the VM.
  3. subst S: C:\MySharedFolder. This subst command will create a virtual drive “S:” which is mapped to C:\MySharedFolder. Make sure the drive letter is free for use.
  4. Open settings for the VM and make sure “S:” is ticked in the drive selection as shown below:

Fig 1

Fig. 1. Sharing a folder on Windows 7 host with a VM using the Setting User Interface

This is all you need to do to share a particular folder between host and VM. To remove the virtual drive use subst S: /d command.

Sending a File from a VM to a Windows 7 Folder

Let’s add little more fun by making it easier to send files to Windows7 host from a VM.

  1. Open Windows Explorer in the VM
  2. For XP VM open folder %userprofile%\SendTo. For a Vista or Windows7 VM, in the Explorer bar type shell:SendTo
  3. In this folder create a shortcut “Windows7 Host,” pointing to “S:” drive as shown below:

Fig 2

Fig. 2. Creating a shortcut to send files from a VM to the Windows 7 host

It is that simple and now by using right click menu for any file or folder you can use “Send To” menu to easily copy files to the Windows 7 desktop (Figure 3).

Fig 3

Fig. 3. Using the right click menu to select the ‘Send To’ folder receiving the copied file from the VM

Vinod Atal

SDE

Microsoft Virtualization Team