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Shared directories no viewable in an app !

Posted: 10. Oct 2016, 15:46
by vincen
Hi

Using Virtualbox 5.0.24 in Ubuntu Xenial (16.04), I installed Windows 10, installed guest additions and I have three directories setup as permanent share for the Windows guest machine. In the file explorer of Windows and in most app I see the 3 "network" drives corresponding to these shares.
But I have one app (listed as compatible Windows 10) where these shares don't appear in the Open Dialog box ! If i click directly on a file in these drives the app is still able to open them and save !

The app has been installed with an administrator account and run in an admin session.

I have seen some infos on Internet about UAC in Windows that might be the problem so I deactivated it but still the same :(

Any ideas ?

Thanks

Vincèn

Re: Shared directories no viewable in an app !

Posted: 10. Oct 2016, 15:54
by socratis
vincen wrote:I have seen some infos on Internet about UAC in Windows that might be the problem so I deactivated it but still the same
  1. The information you read about UAC apply only to executables, not data files.
  2. If you copy the data to your VM's desktop does the app work?
  3. Did you try with traditional Windows network shares instead of the VirtualBox shared folders?
  4. Did you contact the app's manufacturer to see what they think about it?

Re: Shared directories no viewable in an app !

Posted: 10. Oct 2016, 16:26
by vincen
socratis wrote:[*]If you copy the data to your VM's desktop does the app work?
Definitively and same if I double click on file in the share accessed from the Windows Explorer !
socratis wrote:[*]Did you try with traditional Windows network shares instead of the VirtualBox shared folders?
I don't have any real network drives to test if it's the same or not !
socratis wrote:[*]Did you contact the app's manufacturer to see what they think about it?[/list]
Yep and they told me they never got such report and on their computers it works fine with real network drives !

Re: Shared directories no viewable in an app !

Posted: 10. Oct 2016, 20:08
by socratis
So, if I got it right, it's only from within this specific app that you cannot open the data files and that only if you go through a mapped VirtualBox shared folder? Hmm... It smells like something is going on, just don't know who to blame yet (I have a feeling it's your app). Is your application downloadable? Does it have a name?
vincen wrote:I don't have any real network drives to test if it's the same or not !
You definitely could/should. The traditional networking way. You can use Samba to share a folder from your host Ubuntu and if the host and the guest are on the same network, then you can use Windows sharing (=Samba sharing) to access the host from the guest.

Just to have a complete matrix of the potential outcomes, fill in the missing values (?):
  • Local access: It works.
  • Automatically mapped VirtualBox folder: It does not work.
  • Manually mapped VirtualBox folder: ? <-- You deselect automounting in the VM settings, browse the network and map "\\VBoxSvr\Share\" to a drive.
  • Network accessed VirtualBox folder: ? <-- This would be accessing the data from "\\VBoxSvr\Share\" directly.
  • Automatically mapped Samba folder: ?
  • Manually mapped Samba folder: ?
  • Network accessed Samba folder: ?