Opened 14 years ago
Last modified 9 years ago
#5105 closed enhancement
Open file in guest by guest ddition — at Initial Version
Reported by: | Dominic Battre | Owned by: | |
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Component: | guest additions | Version: | VirtualBox 3.0.6 |
Keywords: | Cc: | ||
Guest type: | Windows | Host type: | other |
Description
I would like to suggest a feature to open files in a guest system.
Motivation:
Suppose you run a Linux host environment with a mail client and receive a .docx file that shall be opened in MS Office in a virtual machine. The workflow today would be:
1) save file in temporary directory [host system]
2) open explorer [guest]
3) navigate to temporary directory [guest]
4) open file [guest]
Proposal:
Offer an executable "open_in_vm" for the guest system. The user could then ask the mail client to "Open with..." -> "open_in_vm".
The "open_in_vm" executable would
1) translate the local path into a shared path (/tmp/document.docx becomes \Vboxsrvroot\tmp\document.docx) and
2) ask the guest addition in the VM to open \Vboxsrvroot\tmp\document.docx with the default executable as the user currently logged in
Possible Extensions:
- if no VM is started, the "open_in_vm" executable could ask the user whether a VM should be started and which one
- if several VMs are started, the "open_in_vm" executable could ask which one should open the file
I don't know how difficult it would be to implement this feature but I think it would be extremely useful. I did not find a feature request describing this behavior.