Customize Shared Folders

Applies To: Windows Server 2016 Essentials, Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials, Windows Server 2012 Essentials

By default, the server folders are created on the largest data partition on Disk 0. Partners can customize the location and specify additional server folders by using the following steps:

Using a custom partition configuration, create the factory image, and then create a new Storage registry key before you use sysprep. During Initial Configuration (IC), the storage IC task checks for this registry key. If it exists, the default server folders are created in the C:\ServerFolders directory.

To create a new Storage registry key

On the server, move your mouse to the upper right corner of the screen, and click Search.

In the Search box, type regedit, and then click the Regedit application.

In the navigation pane, expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, expand SOFTWARE, and then expand Microsoft.

Right-click Windows Server, click New, and then click Key.

Name the key Storage.

In the navigation pane, right-click the new Storage registry key, click New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Name the string CreateFoldersOnSystem.

Right-click CreateFoldersOnSystem, and then click Modify. The Edit String dialog box appears.

Set the value of this new key to 1, and then click OK.

Use the PostIC.cmd script to move the folders to a different location or to create additional folders. See the following example: Example 1: Create a custom folder and move the default folders to a new location from PostIC.cmd by using Windows PowerShell.

Use the Windows Server Solutions SDK to move the folders to a different location or to create additional folders. See the following example: Example 2: Create a custom folder and move an existing folder by using the Windows Server Solutions SDK.

Optionally, partners can leave the data folders on drive C. This allows the end user or reseller to determine the layout of the data folders on the data drives.

File sharing over a network in Windows 10

In Windows 10, some features of file and folder sharing over a network have changed, including the removal of HomeGroup. Read on for answers to common questions about other changes to file and folder sharing in Windows 10.

To share a file or folder in File Explorer, do one of the following:

Right-click or press a file, select Give access to > Specific people.

Select a file, select the Share tab at the top of File Explorer, and then in the Share with section select Specific people.

If you select multiple files at once, you can share them all in the same way. It works for folders, too—share a folder, and all files in it will be shared.

To stop sharing in File Explorer, do one of the following:

Right-click or press a file or folder, then select Give access to > Remove access.

Select a file or folder, select the Share tab at the top of File Explorer, and then in the Share with section select Remove access.

File Explorer shows the «Remove access» option («Stop sharing» in older versions of Windows 10) for all files, even those that aren’t being shared over a network.

Open File Explorer, then type \\localhost into the address bar.

Note: When you’ve shared a file from a folder in your user profile and you go to \\localhost, you’ll see your user profile and all its files there. This doesn’t mean that all of your files are shared—just that you have access to all your own files.

If you open File Explorer, go to Network, and see an error message («Network discovery is turned off….»), you’ll need to turn on Network discovery to see devices on the network that are sharing files. To turn it on, select the Network discovery is turned off banner, then select Turn on network discovery and file sharing.

To troubleshoot problems with sharing files or folders, follow the steps below on all computers from which you’re trying to share.

Make sure the computers are on the same network. For example, if your computers connect to the internet through a wireless router, make sure they all connect through the same wireless router.

If you’re on a Wi-Fi network, set it to Private. To find out how, read Make a Wi-Fi network public or private in Windows 10.

Turn on network discovery and file and printer sharing, and turn off password protected sharing.

Select the Start button, then select Settings > Network & Internet , and on the right side, select Sharing options.

Under Private, select Turn on Network discovery and Turn on file and printer sharing.

Under All Networks, select Turn off password protected sharing.

Make sharing services start automatically.

Press the Windows logo key + R.

In the Run dialog box, type services.msc, and then select OK.

Right-click each of the following services, select Properties, if they’re not running, select Start, and next to Startup type, select Automatic:

Windows create shared folder

With the shared folders feature of Oracle VM VirtualBox, you can access files of your host system from within the guest system. This is similar to how you would use network shares in Windows networks, except that shared folders do not require networking, only the Guest Additions. Shared folders are supported with Windows 2000 or later, Linux, and Oracle Solaris guests. Oracle VM VirtualBox includes experimental support for Mac OS X and OS/2 guests.

Shared folders physically reside on the host and are then shared with the guest, which uses a special file system driver in the Guest Additions to talk to the host. For Windows guests, shared folders are implemented as a pseudo-network redirector. For Linux and Oracle Solaris guests, the Guest Additions provide a virtual file system.

To share a host folder with a virtual machine in Oracle VM VirtualBox, you must specify the path of the folder and choose a share name that the guest can use to access the shared folder. This happens on the host. In the guest you can then use the share name to connect to it and access files.

There are several ways in which shared folders can be set up for a virtual machine:

In the window of a running VM, you select Shared Folders from the Devices menu, or click on the folder icon on the status bar in the bottom right corner.

If a VM is not currently running, you can configure shared folders in the virtual machine’s Settings dialog.

From the command line, you can create shared folders using VBoxManage , as follows:

There are two types of shares:

Permanent shares, that are saved with the VM settings.

Transient shares, that are added at runtime and disappear when the VM is powered off. These can be created using a checkbox in the VirtualBox Manager, or by using the —transient option of the VBoxManage sharedfolder add command.

Shared folders can either be read-write or read-only. This means that the guest is either allowed to both read and write, or just read files on the host. By default, shared folders are read-write. Read-only folders can be created using a checkbox in the VirtualBox Manager, or with the —readonly option of the VBoxManage sharedfolder add command.

Oracle VM VirtualBox shared folders also support symbolic links, also called symlinks , under the following conditions:

The host operating system must support symlinks. For example, a Mac OS X, Linux, or Oracle Solaris host is required.

Currently only Linux and Oracle Solaris Guest Additions support symlinks.

For security reasons the guest OS is not allowed to create symlinks by default. If you trust the guest OS to not abuse the functionality, you can enable creation of symlinks for a shared folder as follows:

4.3.1.В Manual Mounting

You can mount the shared folder from inside a VM, in the same way as you would mount an ordinary network share:

In a Windows guest, shared folders are browseable and therefore visible in Windows Explorer. To attach the host’s shared folder to your Windows guest, open Windows Explorer and look for the folder in My Networking Place s, Entire Network , Oracle VM VirtualBox Shared Folders . By right-clicking on a shared folder and selecting Map Network Drive from the menu that pops up, you can assign a drive letter to that shared folder.

Alternatively, on the Windows command line, use the following command:

While vboxsvr is a fixed name, note that vboxsrv would also work, replace x: with the drive letter that you want to use for the share, and sharename with the share name specified with VBoxManage .

In a Linux guest, use the following command:

To mount a shared folder during boot, add the following entry to /etc/fstab :

In a Oracle Solaris guest, use the following command:

Replace sharename , use a lowercase string, with the share name specified with VBoxManage or the VirtualBox Manager. Replace mountpoint with the path where you want the share to be mounted on the guest, such as /mnt/share . The usual mount rules apply. For example, create this directory first if it does not exist yet.

Here is an example of mounting the shared folder for the user jack on Oracle Solaris:

Beyond the standard options supplied by the mount command, the following are available:

This option sets the character set used for I/O operations. Note that on Linux guests, if the iocharset option is not specified, then the Guest Additions driver will attempt to use the character set specified by the CONFIG_NLS_DEFAULT kernel option. If this option is not set either, then UTF-8 is used.

This option specifies the character set used for the shared folder name. This is UTF-8 by default.

The generic mount options, documented in the mount manual page, apply also. Especially useful are the options uid , gid and mode , as they can allow access by normal users in read/write mode, depending on the settings, even if root has mounted the filesystem.

In an OS/2 guest, use the VBoxControl command to manage shared folders. For example:

As with Windows guests, shared folders can also be accessed via UNC using \\VBoxSF\ , \\VBoxSvr\ or \\VBoxSrv\ as the server name and the shared folder name as sharename .

4.3.2.В Automatic Mounting

Oracle VM VirtualBox provides the option to mount shared folders automatically. When automatic mounting is enabled for a shared folder, the Guest Additions service will mount it for you automatically. For Windows or OS/2, a preferred drive letter can also be specified. For Linux or Oracle Solaris, a mount point directory can also be specified.

If a drive letter or mount point is not specified, or is in use already, an alternative location is found by the Guest Additions service. The service searches for an alternative location depending on the guest OS, as follows:

Windows and OS/2 guests. Search for a free drive letter, starting at Z: . If all drive letters are assigned, the folder is not mounted.

Linux and Oracle Solaris guests. Folders are mounted under the /media directory. The folder name is normalized (no spaces, slashes or colons) and is prefixed with sf_ .

For example, if you have a shared folder called myfiles , it will appear as /media/sf_myfiles in the guest.

The guest properties /VirtualBox/GuestAdd/SharedFolders/MountDir and the more generic /VirtualBox/GuestAdd/SharedFolders/MountPrefix can be used to override the automatic mount directory and prefix. See Section 4.7, “Guest Properties”.

Access to an automatically mounted shared folder is granted to everyone in a Windows guest, including the guest user. For Linux and Oracle Solaris guests, access is restricted to members of the group vboxsf and the root user.

Copyright В© 2004, 2020 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Legal Notices

Access to shared folder on Windows 10

I have a computer on a network that I upgraded to Windows 10. That is running on bootcamp. I was able to map to a shared computer on the network running windows 7 initially and set up a link to a specific shared folder on the desktop. Adter a few days the win10 compiter can no longer connect to the shared folder.

I have made sure that all permission are correct on both computers to allow them to interact as well as ensured they were in the same workgroup on the network. I have tried about 10 different fixes from the internet with no success.

The win10 pc has full access to the internet and the rest of the network but it will not connect to this specific computer. I am pulling my hair out so any suggestions would help.

Replies (5) 

Thank you for posting on Microsoft Communities.

I will be glad to help you with the issue you have with the computer. I understand the frustration when things don’t work the way it should.

Try giving full permissions to the folder and then try accessing it.

To set folder permission, refer the below steps:

1. Right-click the folder and select Properties.
2. Click on the Security tab.
3. Click Advanced in the lower right.
4. In the Advanced Security Settings window that pops up, click on the Owner tab.
5. Click Edit.
6. Click Other users or groups.
7. Click Advanced in the lower left corner.
8. Click Find Now.
9. Scroll through the results and double-click on your current user account.
10. Click OK to all of the remaining windows except the first Properties window.
11. Select your user account from the list up top and click Edit.
12. Select your user account from the list up top again and then in the pane below, check Full control under Allow, or as much control as you need.
13. You’ll get a security warning, click Yes.

Step 2:

1. Open ‘My computer’.

2. On the tool bar, click on ‘Map Network Drive’.

3. Then under folder, enter your network drive’s name followed by the folder name.

For example, if your network drive name is ‘ STORAGE-0B74’ and the folder name is ‘Public’,

you need to enter as \\STORAGE-0B74\Public

Step 3:

Temporary disable Windows Firewall service

1. Press Windows + R, type «services.msc» (without quotation marks) in the open box and press Enter.

Note: If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password, or click Continue.

2. Right click the » Windows Firewall » service and choose Properties.

3. Click «Startup type» option and click «Disabled».

4. Click OK and share the printer again.

If the issue persists, please proceed to the next steps to verify service.

Verify Network settings

1. Go to Control Panel.

2. Double click Network and Sharing Center.

3. Select «Change advanced sharing settings» option in the right panel.

4. Please turn on «Network discovery» and «File and printer sharing».

Hope this information is useful. Please post in case you have any further issues, I will be glad to help you further.

5 people found this reply helpful

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

Thank you Ruth! I have spent the last two days acouring the internet to find each of these solutions. I ahould have stopped here and asked first because this is the most coherent well laid out answer that anyone has provided! Thank you.

Unfortunately, none of these solutions have worked for me and I have done them on both computers in question. I have granted full access and permissions to the single user as well as full access to everone on the network. Neither worked. I disabled the firewalls to no avail. I have updated the network settings on both computers as stated in tour last step. None of this helped.

I also saw online that maybe the encryption was an issueso I switched that but it didnt help either.

The weird thing is I was able to set the drive up and access it fine for about a week then all of a sudden the w10 computer can no longer connect to the file. I cant find where any of the sertings changed between those two conditions.

Thank you again for the well laid out response. I am hoping you may have some more tricks up your sleeve!

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

I tried the suggested fix and I too did not get anywhere, specifically because I had no «Owner» Tab. SOOOOO I played around and got it working by doing the following:

1. Right-click the Public folder and select Properties.

2. Click the Sharing tab in Public Properties. This will open the File Sharing window for the Public folder.

3. Using the pull down menu (where it says «Type a name and click add, or click the arrow to find someone» , select Everyone.

5. Select the appropriate permission level (I chose Read/Write).

After a few minutes, It may ask if you want to do the same with other public folders like music and videos. I chose yes, but you can choose whatever you want. After that it worked for me.

8 people found this reply helpful

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

Thank you for posting on Microsoft Communities.

I will be glad to help you with the issue you have with the computer. I understand the frustration when things don’t work the way it should.

Try giving full permissions to the folder and then try accessing it.

To set folder permission, refer the below steps:

1. Right-click the folder and select Properties.
2. Click on the Security tab.
3. Click Advanced in the lower right.
4. In the Advanced Security Settings window that pops up, click on the Owner tab.
5. Click Edit.
6. Click Other users or groups.
7. Click Advanced in the lower left corner.
8. Click Find Now.
9. Scroll through the results and double-click on your current user account.
10. Click OK to all of the remaining windows except the first Properties window.
11. Select your user account from the list up top and click Edit.
12. Select your user account from the list up top again and then in the pane below, check Full control under Allow, or as much control as you need.
13. You’ll get a security warning, click Yes.

Step 2:

1. Open ‘My computer’.

2. On the tool bar, click on ‘Map Network Drive’.

3. Then under folder, enter your network drive’s name followed by the folder name.

For example, if your network drive name is ‘ STORAGE-0B74’ and the folder name is ‘Public’,

you need to enter as \\STORAGE-0B74\Public

Step 3:

Temporary disable Windows Firewall service

1. Press Windows + R, type «services.msc» (without quotation marks) in the open box and press Enter.

Note: If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password, or click Continue.

2. Right click the » Windows Firewall » service and choose Properties.

3. Click «Startup type» option and click «Disabled».

4. Click OK and share the printer again.

If the issue persists, please proceed to the next steps to verify service.

Verify Network settings

1. Go to Control Panel.

2. Double click Network and Sharing Center.

3. Select «Change advanced sharing settings» option in the right panel.

4. Please turn on «Network discovery» and «File and printer sharing».

Hope this information is useful. Please post in case you have any further issues, I will be glad to help you further.

1. DISABLE WINDOWS UPDATE/UPGRADE

2. ADD USER «EVERYONE» TO SHARED FOLDER AND MAKE FULL ACCESS PREMISSIONS TO IT.

3. DISABLE USE SHARING WITH PASSWORD IN WINDOWS 10 — CHANGE ADVANDED SHARING SETTINGS -> ALL NETWORKS -> TURN OFF PASSWORD-PROTECTED SHARING

6 people found this reply helpful

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn’t help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.