VirtualBox – Seamless Mode With Windows and Linux Sharing Same Desktop

VirtualBox seamless mode places the Windows taskbar above your Gnome or KDE taskbar. The Windows desktop is not displayed. When you open a Firefox or Internet Explorer web browser, from the Windows taskbar and save a file from a website, it will save to the Windows desktop. To compensate you can allow Windows to share the exact same desktop as your host Linux OS. You can save files from Windows web browsers directly to the shared Linux desktop. Essential this is taking seamless a step further!! First enable VirtualBox shared folder support for your desired guest OS. Make the shared folder either your Linux desktop directly, or simply your home directory. Then mount the shared folder in the guest OS:

net use x: vboxsvrDesktop

Then open regedit. Locate the key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerUser Shell Folders]

Change the desktop key to:

1) x: ; if you set the shared folder to be your Linux desktop folder

2) x:Desktop ; if you set the shared folder to be your Linux home folder

Now just reboot your Windows guest OS and observe the seamless consolidation of your Windows and Linux desktops!! This is one of my favorite Linux tweaks

I now run the virtual server in headless mode. If your interested in my new desktop configuration you can see it in this post!! Its frikkin cool. On my system notice that a virtual server environment is running in the top right window. That is the actual server environment that is hosting this website.

Tags: desktop, desktop key, explorer web browser, folder, guest os, internet explorer web, linux, shell folders, taskbar, Windows

This entry was posted by nseidm1 on December 25, 2007 at 2:31 am, and is filled under Server, Windows, desktop, linux, seamless, virtualbox. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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Comments (13)

#1 written by Rootman
January 28, 2008 - 11:26 am

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This is most ex cellant, is it possible to run it just the OPPOSITE? That is, Linux seamlessly on the Windows desktop? Those of us stuck in Windows want to know.
#2 written by nseidm1
January 28, 2008 - 12:21 pm

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Seamless mode on Windows a Windows host.
#3 written by tcw
May 12, 2008 - 4:56 pm

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1-word for you Rootman…
coLinux. andLinux does exactly that.
#4 written by munka
May 24, 2008 - 8:46 pm

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Howdy,
thanks for the great tweak, improving the virtual experience.
You may want to check the screenshot link, it fails to load “contains errors”
Again thankyou.
#5 written by David
December 4, 2008 - 7:40 am

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I followed your instructions to make my windows desktop appear on my linux desktop, but it doesnt seem to work. When im not in seamless mode i can see my linux icons in windows, but when i go seamless i cant see any windows icons. did i do something wrong?
#6 written by P. Kell
December 22, 2008 - 3:05 pm

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To TCW, Colinux, to the best of my knowledge will only allow the Linux kernel and gnu OS to be run as a process inside a windows machine. This approach let’s you run windows in a virtual machine placed on any environment VirtualBox runs on. If a problem were to happen during Colinux operation it could cause issues in the Windows host. If a problem were to happen to Windows in a virtual machine, you would only have to restart the virtual machine.
#7 written by Anil
February 26, 2009 - 12:31 am

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If i can run photoshop harnessing the benifits of graphics card i would completely uninstall windows and run it from my ubuntu. Is it possible ?
#8 written by Javier Garrido
March 11, 2009 - 8:07 pm

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Hi, i do this tweak for my Linux with Windows on VirtualBox, i share Documents folder and Desktop folder, Documents works great but Desktop goes bad, when i change name or delete a file, windows can’t refresh this change, and i need press F5 to see changes. Almost i can´t create a file or folder directly in desktop windows (In Shared folder in Windows Explorer i can do). Windows show a message (In spanish)”No se puede crear la carpeta ‘Nueva Carpeta’ No hay mas archivos’ (Traduction) “Can’t create folder ‘New Folder’ No more files” Any help???
Thanks
#9 written by brainelss
June 17, 2009 - 12:16 am

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Hi dude .. I’m new to linux and virtualbox … Can u please give me more details how to do .. I couldnt understand ur steps .. Thanks in advance .. If u can mail me to brainless_susan@yahoo.co.in
#10 written by Bill Bartmann-
September 14, 2009 - 12:18 am

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Hey good stuff…keep up the good work! I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say I’m glad I found your blog. Thanks,)
A definite great read…
#11 written by Car Insurance Guy
November 11, 2009 - 5:39 am

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Ah!!! at last I found what I was looking for. Somtimes it takes so much effort to find even tiny useful piece of information.
Nice post. Thanks
#12 written by club penguin
December 30, 2009 - 2:41 pm

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I thank you very much, webmaster, for this great blog. I really appreciate your posts.
#13 written by club penguin
January 1, 2010 - 2:51 pm

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Webmaster, I love your site. Thank you sooo much for working on it.

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