How do you install programs onto VirtualBox? What's the easiest way?

[mintyfreshuser]

Hi.

Does anyone know how to install programs onto VirtualBox? I'm running VirtualBox Graphical User Interface Version 5.1.32 r120294 (Qt5.5.1) by Oracle.

I have a virtualized version of Windows 10 installed and it works, but I don't yet know how to install programs onto it. I want to install those programs that have trouble working on Linux. The Wine program doesn't always work for me for some reason.

The distro of Linux Mint that I'm using is Linux 18.3 Sylvia and the desktop environment is Cinnamon 3.6.6 if that helps.

Thank you.

[deepakdeshp]

The programs are installed just as you would on a physical machine.
Fire up the VM and follow the same instructions for it

[chrisuk]

Your Virtual Machine (VM) is isolated from the rest of your host system (apart from maybe the clipboard), so double-clicking on an installer will just run Wine.

Your VM might be setup to access your DVD drive and/or USB drives directly, but I think most people would create a shared folder in your $Home - say "WinShare", and copy any installers to there, and then access them from the VM.

You could of course, just enable Internet access in your VM, and download and install directly as usual. Personally, I never allow any of my Widows VMs to access the Internet... unless it was for testing and I'd just revert to a saved state afterwards.

[Cosmo.]

The first question is, frm whch source you want to install. The sentence regarding wine lets me assume, that you have the program's installation file already. In this case you need to create a Shared folder for the VM. Note, that you need to install at first the guest additions at first inside of the running VM.

[mintyfreshuser]

The first question is, frm whch source you want to install. The sentence regarding wine lets me assume, that you have the program's installation file already. In this case you need to create a Shared folder for the VM. Note, that you need to install at first the guest additions at first inside of the running VM.

I guess I would like to install things from either my Downloads folder on Linux Mint or from an external drive such as a USB stick or an SD card.

I created a Shared folder for the VM and I called it "WinShare" within the "Home" folder. I've been looking for it from within the Windows 10 VirtualBox, but it doesn't show up. I have an SD card plugged into my computer which shows up as a drive on Linux Mint, but I don't seem to be able to find that drive within my Windows 10 VirtualBox. I don't know why my SD card wouldn't show up.

[mintyfreshuser]

Your VM might be setup to access your DVD drive and/or USB drives directly, but I think most people would create a shared folder in your $Home - say "WinShare", and copy any installers to there, and then access them from the VM.

The VM doesn't seem to be set up to access the DVD drive and/or USB drives directly. I have an SD card plugged into my computer which shows up within Linux Mint, but not within VirtualBox.

I did create a shared folder in "Home" folder of Linux Mint, named it "WinShare", and then put an installation folder within it, but this "WinShare" folder doesn't seem to show up within my Windows 10 VirtualBox when I run it.

You could of course, just enable Internet access in your VM, and download and install directly as usual.

I will see if downloading something within VirtualBox and then installing it within VirtualBox works.

[Cosmo.]

I created a Shared folder for the VM and I called it "WinShare" within the "Home" folder. I've been looking for it from within the Windows 10 VirtualBox, but it doesn't show up.

From inside of the running W10 guest open from the VB devices menu (at the top) shared folders and open the dialogue for it. What does it show?
Other question is: Do you have the guest additions installed in the W10 guest? Press in the running guest host-n. In the upper part you can see, if and which are installed.

I have an SD card plugged into my computer which shows up as a drive on Linux Mint, but I don't seem to be able to find that drive within my Windows 10 VirtualBox. I don't know why my SD card wouldn't show up.

At best you leave this. The problem is, that a drive can only be associated with the host or with a guest, never with both of them at the same time. The next problem is, that by associating an external drive this will get "hot" disconnected from the host without properly dismounting it at first; a principle problem, how VB handles this. Doing this would sooner or later result in data loss. (Out of this reason I do not give an advice how to do this mistake.)

You should instead use the shared folder as a intermediate storage place. Copy the files from the external drive into the shared folder respectively the other way round.