XP works brilliantly with only a gig of memory allocated to it, and I can use all my programs with no problems. However, folders are not shared automatically and need to be set up manually to ensure better integration. And although I have done this countless times before when I’ve set up new machines, added folders for sharing or needed to reinstall Ubuntu, I can never remember the steps to do it.

So, here is a really simple guide to setting up shared folders with an Ubuntu host and Windows XP guest (VirtualBox parlance for your ‘actual’ operating system and the one being virtualised, respectively):

First create the folder you want to set up as a share, then open a terminal in Ubuntu and type the following:

VBoxManage sharedfolder add "XP" -name "share" -hostpath "full/path/to/folder"

Where “XP” is the name of your VM and “share” is what Windows will recognise the folder as. This needs to be done while your VM isn’t switched on, otherwise the command will fail. Once you’ve done it, load up the VM and go into the command prompt to enter the following:

net use x: \\vboxsvr\share

Where x: is the drive you want to map the folder to, and share is the name given above.

And there you have it, a shared folder so you can quickly and easily transfer files between both operating systems. I use it mainly so that my work is on a real drive rather than just on the VM’s virtual hard drive, but it is also useful for minimising the amount of space needed for the VM.