virtualbox.org

Is there a way to make it so that when I click on a link in an app running in the guest VM, it opens the link in my web browser in the host?

I'm using the VM to run a legacy app. Sometimes there are links to web pages in the legacy app that I need to click on. I want to visit those links using my primary web browser on the real computer, for security and convenience reasons, and not whatever browser exists inside the VM.

edit: I should have said, the guest VM is Snow Leopard in this case, host is Mavericks.

I'm guessing the answer is no but, why is it more secure and convenient to open a guest, click a link, and then look on the browser on your host? why not click on them in the host?

loukingjr wrote:I'm guessing the answer is no but, why is it more secure and convenient to open a guest, click a link, and then look on the browser on your host? why not click on them in the host?

This is a legacy app which I need to continue to use. Sometimes the data in it includes a link. It would be far more secure and convenient if those links could be opened as another browser tab in the host, where I have all my bookmarks, plug-ins, and so forth, on an up-to-date browser, rather than inside the guest.

It is not possible to do what you want with Virtualbox.

noteirak wrote:It is not possible to do what you want with Virtualbox.

Darn. Do you know if this is possible with Parallels or VMWare?

I understand why you may need the guest. I just don't understand why you need the link to open in the host browser. If there is data you want from a web page you could always save it to a shared folder. But anyway, I don't think it's possible to do what you want but I certainly don't know everything and perhaps someone else has an idea.

Glaurung wrote:Darn. Do you know if this is possible with Parallels or VMWare?

AFAIK no, but you need to ask them for confirmation.

Don't forget that what you're trying to do is going against the very idea of virtualization, so you won't just find this feature out of the box.
There might be ways of doing this but it will involve a 3rd party/custom software to perform this.

Actually, I would have thought this was possible. AFAIK a link on the clipboard is just text, so as long as you have the GAs installed, and the appropriate VM settings enabled, it should work.

mpack wrote:so as long as you have the GAs installed, and the appropriate VM settings enabled, it should work.

The problem being that both the host and the guest are OS X and there are no GAs for OS X.

rpmurray wrote:The problem being that both the host and the guest are OS X and there are no GAs for OS X.

Then you 1) enter the URL by hand on your host browser, or 2) copy the URL in your guest, paste it in a text file that resides in a shared folder and open the text file in your host. Complicated, yes. The only workaround so far I'm afraid...

I just thought of (and tried) another, potentially easier, way; screen sharing. Share your host's or guest's screen and connect to that from your guest or your host, respectively. You can then use the "Send clipboard" and "Get clipboard" commands of the Screen Sharing app to pass clipboard data back and forth.

My experiment was: 10.6 host, 10.8 guest, shared 10.8's screen, connected from 10.6.

socratis wrote:I just thought of (and tried) another, potentially easier, way; screen sharing.

That's out of Virtualbox scope then

As far as I know, to do exactly what the OP proposed is not even possible to do on two physical Macs.

Glaurung wrote:Is there a way to make it so that when I click on a link in an app running in the guest VM, it opens the link in my web browser in the host?

I'm using the VM to run a legacy app. Sometimes there are links to web pages in the legacy app that I need to click on. I want to visit those links using my primary web browser on the real computer, for security and convenience reasons, and not whatever browser exists inside the VM.

edit: I should have said, the guest VM is Snow Leopard in this case, host is Mavericks.

Check out Back to my Mac, it has 'shared clipboard' support

ChipMcK wrote:

Glaurung wrote:Check out Back to my Mac, it has 'shared clipboard' support

Back To My Mac requires at least 10.7.5 His guest is Snow Leopard.