VirtualBox Guest Additions

[SonOfScotland]

Hello.

I'm relatively new to using VirtualBox and could use some assistance. Everyone in my office uses a MacBook Pro for our daily work, but we use VirtualBox to VM into a Windows Server. We recently updated the VB software on our Macs to v5.2.20. However, I'm noticing that when I log onto the Virtual Machine (windows box), we get a message stating that the VirtualBox Guest Additions are on some 4.x.x version. How do we upgrade that? Do we need to? One issue most of my colleagues and I are having is that our VMs will just close down on us randomly throughout the day, so we are wondering if this has anything to do with that "guest additions" thing?

Cheers and thanks in advance to anyone that can provide feedback/instruction on this.

[socratis]

The Guest Additions (GAs) get installed on the guest and it would be good to match the VirtualBox version, for anything other than enhanced graphics support. It provides functionality such as shared folders, shared clipboard, drag and drop, pointer sharing (for PS/2 mice), enhanced graphics support. You do not have to download it separately from the main VirtualBox program, since it comes bundled with it.

To install them, with the VM window having the focus, click on the menu "Devices" » "Insert Guest Additions CD Image". If the installation program doesn't autostart, go to the CD in your VM and run "VBoxGuestAdditions.exe". Follow the prompts. Eject the CD from within your guest after you're done with the installation and the rebooting.