Anything better than VMWare Workstation?

Spartan said:

....I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to access files that are on my computer in the VM...

Doesn't really matter what you use to set up your VM, it won't have direct access to your physical drives. The usual way to gain access is to set up shares and access the files over a network connection. See the How-To Geek here:

How to Share Your Computer’s Files With a Virtual Machine

Spartan said:

Is there a better alternative?

Yes, Hyper-V enables you to share files between host and guest OS:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/vir...windows/about/

At least 3 ways:
- vmware shared folders
- copy/paste via vmware tools
- regular smb/cifs sharing.
Yes, a basic effort needed.

zebal said:

Yes, Hyper-V enables you to share files between host and guest OS:

Strictly speaking that too is a connection via a network share. A Hyper-V enhanced mode connection is only available if the guest is Pro. The local drives are connected to through a special network device named \\tsclient. The host machine's C: drive is \\tsclient\C.

Hello Bree, I didn't know that but I was referring to following setting, is that the same thing?
Because I never saw tsclient folder in VM.





Enhanced mode enables us to drag or copy/paste files from host to guest and vice versa but for that this option is not required so I suppose this are 2 different things, to which one do you refer?

Spartan said:

I thought it's the best, I tried it the other day and found it not very user friendly. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to access files that are on my computer in the VM and even the drag/drop file function didn't work as it had a stop sign sign

Is there a better alternative?

I tried VirtualBox but VMWare was better in my opinion. Setting up shared folders on your local PC is easy.

Enable a Shared Folder for a Virtual Machine

ClippyBeer said:

I tried VirtualBox but VMWare was better in my opinion. Setting up shared folders on your local PC is easy.

Enable a Shared Folder for a Virtual Machine

Hi folks

@zebal

Whatever Virtualisation platform you use - there's a decent application called FILEZILLA which is a dead simple way to transfer files between systems without need for CIFS, SAMBA Network shares etc etc

For WINDOWS to RECEIVE files from another system ensure the openssh server is installed on the SENDING system (it's available via the optional features and applications -if a Windows system, if a Linux NAS type system install openssh and ensure the sshd service is enabled and running.)

This is essentially a file transfer system - so it depends on what you want --if you want continuous access to shared folders that's another issue that others have dealt with here - but as you mentioned cut and paste folders I assume it's just copying files you are primarily interested in.

Here's a NAS accessing a Windows VM via FileZilla



Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

there's a decent application called FILEZILLA which is a dead simple way to transfer files between systems without need for CIFS, SAMBA Network shares etc etc

I would never come to that super simple idea!
I used FileZilla for some things but never for virtual machine, good idea!

zebal said:

Hello Bree, I didn't know that but I was referring to following setting, is that the same thing?
Because I never saw tsclient folder in VM....

Yes, I'm talking about the same thing. When I set enhanced mode and allow access to the host's drives for a Hyper-V VM then I see a tsclient device in the guest's File Explorer under Network.

Kari said:

Tsclient is an important part of Hyper-V networking. When your VM is in normal mode it's needed although you cannot access it directly...

...In enhanced mode when local resources have been enabled it offers access to local drives you have selected...

...However, this is of course not necessary because Tsclient also displays the enabled host drives (highlighted) directly in VM's This PC

What is the tsclient computer in my Network window in Windows 10? - post #2

Although you appear to have direct physical access to the host's hard drives in reality the access is provided via networking.