Open file in guest by guest additions

[Dominic Battre]

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.