Cannot open shared Quicken data in an XP Pro VM

[Trippp]

Hi,

I'm new to VirtualBox and have just run into a problem which I hope someone here can help me with.

I have a new Dell laptop running Win 10 Pro and would like to use VirtualBox to run my 'legacy' checkbook program, Quicken for Windows (UBS version). I was able to do this on my old Win 7 box using 'XP Mode' but there is no XP Mode in Win 10; however, I've just discovered VirtualBox (and it's so much better)!

Here's what I've done so far:

- Created a VM and installed Windows XP Pro SP3 (32 bit), 2048 MB memory. Hard disk type was VDI, dynamically allocated, 10 gig, In the Storage Settings I checked the box indicating that I was using a Solid State Drive.

- I installed Guest Additions, set the clipboard and drag & drop to bidirectional, and set up two 'shared' folders with full access: The 'Documents' folder on the Win 10 machine, where the Quicken data is stored, and the folder where I keep my installation software.

- I then installed Quicken on the VM. However, when I ran the Quicken and navigated to the 'shared' folder where the data was stored and tried to open the file, I receive a 'Quicken' error message, 'Can't Open File'. Unfortunately, no further explanation was provided.

I'm pretty sure the sharing is working because 1) I was able to install Quicken and 2) Using the Notepad program in the Windows XP VM, I was able to open an Ini file in the Quicken data library.

I'm also pretty sure Quicken is installed correctly because when I copied the Quicken data to the XP virtual machine I was able to open it without problem.

I would appreciate any suggestions you might have as to what is preventing me from being able to open the Quicken data file.

Thanks for your help,

Trip

[mpack]

How old is Quicken exactly? Is it a 16bit app? If yes then it may not be able to use VirtualBox shared folders successfully.

No problem, you just have to set up a normal Windows share, which is only slightly more complicated: you have to enable sharing on the folder in the host (though I'm not happy about you sharing your entire Documents folder - not very secure: the less host stuff that guest malware has access to, the better). Then you need to ensure that the VM and the guest share a network. The ideal way is to change your network connection from NAT to bridged, and make sure both host and guest are in the same workgroup or domain. Bridged works best with Ethernet NICs, it doesn't always work with WiFi. If Bridged doesn't work then the alternative would be a "Host-Only" virtual connection.

[Trippp]

Thanks so much for your helpful reply!

I will take your comments about not giving the XP VM access to the entire documents library to heart and change this right away.

I'm a little disappointed Quicken is not behaving -- I don't believe it's 16 bit and it worked under Win 7 + XP mode -- but you make the workaround sound entirely doable, which is all that matters. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the processes you describe and don't know where to start looking for the information. Is it possible for you to send me a link to more detailed information about setting up a normal Windows share. I'm also a little confused as to why the network connection is important... the share is between a folder on my SSD and a folder in the XP VM. Neither Ethernet nor Wifi seems relevant.

Anyway, excuse my ignorance and thanks again for your response.

Trip

[erdeslawe]

User Manual: https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/UserManual.htm
Shared Folders (Section 3.11): https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch03.html#idm1683

[scottgus1]

Guest Additions Shared Folders are only for copying files, not for running programs or databases, like your Quicken wants to do.

You have two choices:

Either keep the Quicken data in your XP guest, which you reported does work when the Quicken data is on the guest disk. (This may be easiest for you. Just keep good backups, and copy the data out of the guest every so often.)

Or set up a real network between the host PC OS and the XP guest. See the manual, section 6, especially 6.2 and the table. You will most likely use Host-Only as the network type. This gives a private network channel between your host OS and the guest OS, with no internet to sneak malware onto XP. Shut down the guest properly from within the guest OS. In the main Virtualbox window, the guest's Network settings, set the first network adapter enabled, and to Host-Only. Leave everything else alone. Click OK, and re-start the guest. Share a folder on the host OS using the host OS's usual sharing methods (not through Virtualbox) and give "Everyone" read/write access to that folder - google for how to do this if you are not familiar. See if there is a valid network connection within the guest OS. Try to open the Run... box in the gust OS and type \\192.168.56.1 If the host's shared folder appears in the guest OS window, and you can make a text file in the folder, then put the Quicken data in that folder and run Quicken off it.

If the above network setup doesn't work for you, either post back or put the Quicken data in the guest drive as recommended first.

[mpack]

I'm also a little confused as to why the network connection is important... the share is between a folder on my SSD and a folder in the XP VM.

I suspect that's because you aren't thinking correctly about what a VM actually is. You are clearly thinking of the VM as being an application running on your host, with all the host access that any other app would have.

It is more correct to think of the host and the VM as two separate PCs - it doesn't matter that the hardware of one of these PCs is largely simulated: the virtual PC doesn't know that. The virtual PC is able to communicate with other PCs, but it will be happiest when the mechanisms you make it use are the mechanisms which it expects to use. So, when the PC is asked to access data on another PC, it expects to do so over a network connection. The data can't just magically appear on its own disks.

VirtualBox is capable of presenting the VM with a fully simulated network connection (i.e. the host-only network connection), but in many cases you will also want the PC to have physical network access e.g. for Internet, and hence VirtualBox also provides a number of ways of connecting to a physical network (*). One of these is bridged networking, which makes the guest appear as a new (and perfectly ordinary) PC on the same physical network which the host uses. The VM therefore has access to all of the networked resources which any other PC on this network would see, which includes any shared folders and printers offered up by any of the networked PCs.

(*) In fact, to the wider network it looks like a new PC has been added as a spur on the cable which currently connects your PC to your router. You'll notice that this description takes no account of WiFi connections, which is why the trick doesn't always work with WiFi - it depends on the router.

[Trippp]

Gentlemen,

Thank you all for the very helpful explanations. I now understand much better what a VM is and have been able to get Quicken up and running again.

I'd just like to summarize my assumptions and ask a further question:

By my setting the Network type to Host Only, the VM no longer has access to the Internet and, more importantly, the Internet doesn't have access to the VM, meaning I don't have to worry about installing antivirus software, etc, on the VM.

I needed to set up a shared folder between the host OS and the VM so I could navigate to the correct folder in the host OS from within the VM.

My giving 'everyone' read/write access to the folder seems to be what enabled Quicken to open the file. However, one thing I don't understand is that when I initially typed \\192.168.56.1 in order to test the sharing, I was asked to log onto the host machine. I logged on using my usual Windows ID and after that enabled sharing as you suggested. Quicken worked.

As a test, however, I then removed 'everyone' from the shared folder and Quicken still worked. So was it actually the necessity of logging onto the Host from the VM that allowed Quicken to work or the sharing? Also, I don't understand why I don't need to re-log onto the Host each time I start the VM. And I don't know how to log on except by typing \\192.168.56.1

At this point these questions are academic because Quicken is up and running (thank you again). But I'm still curious and would better like to understand what is going on.

Trip

[mpack]

By my setting the Network type to Host Only, the VM no longer has access to the Internet and, more importantly, the Internet doesn't have access to the VM, meaning I don't have to worry about installing antivirus software, etc, on the VM.

Correct. However I suggest that you continue restricting the VMs host access to the minimum necessary. That way this isn't something you'll have to remember to think about in the future, when you give the VM access to the Internet.

As to your questions about logging into the host... I don't claim to be a networking expert, but it's my understanding that most of the common networking tasks (e.g. sharing folders and printers) are covered by purpose designed Windows protocols (e.g. SMB). If the host requires a password to log in then the guest, like any other user, will be asked for a password, but then modern Windows (XP and on) is capable of fixing network problems in the background so these events don't keep plaguing you. However. If you try to use network protocols in "suspicious" ways (e.g. accessing a host IP address with an internet browser) then you'll still be blocked by password prompts.

So yes, the thing that enabled Quicken to work was entering a password. The password basically identifies you as being the same user who is logged into the host, hence "everyone" doesn't need to be granted access to the Quicken data folder.