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VirtualBox has a feature that allows you to copy and paste between the host machine and the guest machine or vice versa. Installing the guest additions software will also not automatically allow you to copy and paste between machines. To enable that you must allow bidirectional shared clipboard on each machine.
In case we enabled auto-mounting on creating a shared folder from the Virtual Box Manager those shared folders will automatically be mounted in the guest with mount point /media/sf_ . To have access to these folders users in the guest need to be a member of the group vboxsf .
Why does VirtualBox not know about shared folders?
This is because the Host OS doesn’t support the same permission system as Linux, so VirtualBox has no way of knowing who should own the files. However, I strongly recommend just configuring the shared folder to be auto-mounted (it’s a setting on the Shared Folder configuration in VirtualBox itself).
How do I add a user to a shared folder in VirtualBox?
After rebooting the Guest VM launch a terminal on the Host and check the user that is associated with the running VirtualBox Guest process is either your user, very likely, or in a group with access to the Shared folder. Then as per several of the previous answers in a Terminal on the Guest VM add your user to the vboxsf group.
So you wouldn’t worry about changing their permissions (which don’t make sense on the Windows host), you just give yourself access. and it is that directory that should be used to access to the Shared Folder, by putting the local user into the vboxsf group.
How do I auto mount a folder in VirtualBox?
In the next dialog click on the Add Folder icon to the right of the Folders List. Then in the popup window select the Host Folder you just created as the Folder Path and give it a Folder Name that will be used by the Guest VM, also tick the “Auto Mount” check-box.