virtualbox.org

Hello,
Running current version of VB with guest extensions on Windows 8 host with Windows XP guest. Everything is working well on a daily basis with this setup. I do find one thing hard to understand. When I work with the "shared folder" on the Host system in windows explorer, response is "fast". When I work with the "shared folder" on the XP guest, the response in windows explorer is much much slower. Should I expect this since the virtual PC is interacting with a folder on the "real" PC and the translation between the guest/host is running through more code...or have I failed to take advantage of some non-default VB setting? Thank you for tolerating yet another stupid question.
OmaSteak

What kind of "slow" and "fast" are we talking about here? Secondes? Minutes? Hours?

Sorry I wasn't more specific. When working with folders on/within the Windows 8 host or those on/within the Windows XP guest, response to file/folder actions in Windows Explorer is as one would expect...very fast depending upon action/file size/etc. When working with the shared folder from inside the XP guest, things like copying a single text file of small size from a guest folder to the shared folder may take something like 20-30 seconds or more. Doing the same thing on the Windows 8 host side, is as one would expect...almost instantaneous even to the shared folder. As the file/folder size increases, delay on/within the guest side increases. I only use the shared folder to do a weekly backup of Quicken and Outlook Express outside of/in addition to backing up the complete VirtualBox VMs folder to external hard drive(s). More of a curiosity than a major problem...and yes, I am being overly cautious with backups. LOL!!! Thank you.
OmaSteak

Perhaps? http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch12.html#idp56302608

Wow! What a difference adding those 2 lines made! Almost no delay after adding the lines and a guest reboot. Thank you for helping a newer user get the most out of this great program and superior support community. I probably scanned that section of the User Manual and had no idea that it applied to my situation. Just another dumb newbie.
OmaSteak

No problem. Gotta take care of another Husker.

Thank you, this helped me as well.

The anchor in the above link appears to no longer exist. Can you repost with an updated anchor, or with the heading name?

Link has been updated. Thanks for the report.

http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch12.html#idp56302608

The anchor doesn't work anymore, could you please post an updated one? Thank you!

Edit: Maybe it's http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch12.html#idp57575424 , titled "12.3.7. Long delays when accessing shared folders":

The performance for accesses to shared folders from a Windows guest might be decreased due to delays during the resolution of the VirtualBox shared folders name service. To fix these delays, add the following entries to the file \windows\system32\drivers\etc\lmhosts of the Windows guest:

255.255.255.255 VBOXSVR #PRE
255.255.255.255 VBOXSRV #PRE

After doing this change, a reboot of the guest is required.

?

Yes, that was the linked article.

today that link is https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch12.html#idm11324 -

The links in the documentation, need to be fixed, that's a given. I've already filed a ticket for that; #17318: Permanent, human readable anchors in the HTML User Manual. Any volunteers? I could coordinate the whole effort if need be, while "colluding"/communicating with the developers of course.