| 1 | <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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| 3 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="guestadd-dnd">
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| 4 | <title>Drag and Drop</title>
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| 5 |
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| 6 | <body>
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| 7 | <p><ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> enables you to drag and drop content from the host to the
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| 8 | guest, and vice versa. For this to work the latest version of the Guest Additions must be installed on the guest. </p>
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| 9 | <p>Drag and drop transparently allows copying or opening files, directories, and even certain clipboard formats from
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| 10 | one end to the other. For example, from the host to the guest or from the guest to the host. You then can perform
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| 11 | drag and drop operations between the host and a VM, as it would be a native drag and drop operation on the host
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| 12 | OS. </p>
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| 13 | <p>At the moment drag and drop is implemented for Windows-based and X-Windows-based systems, both on the host and
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| 14 | guest side. As X-Windows supports many different drag and drop protocols only the most common one, XDND, is
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| 15 | supported for now. Applications using other protocols, such as Motif or OffiX, will not be recognized by <ph
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| 16 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>. </p>
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| 17 | <p>In the context of using drag and drop, the origin of the data is called the <i>source</i>. That is, where the
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| 18 | actual data comes from and is specified. The <i>destination</i> specifies where the data from the source should go
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| 19 | to. Transferring data from the source to the destination can be done in various ways, such as copying, moving, or
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| 20 | linking. </p>
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| 21 | <note>
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| 22 | <p>At the moment only copying of data is supported. Moving or linking is not yet implemented. </p>
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| 23 | </note>
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| 24 | <p>When transferring data from the host to the guest OS, the host in this case is the source, whereas the guest OS
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| 25 | is the destination. However, when transferring data from the guest OS to the host, the guest OS this time became
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| 26 | the source and the host is the destination. </p>
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| 27 | <p>For security reasons drag and drop can be configured at runtime on a per-VM basis either using the <b
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| 28 | outputclass="bold">Drag and Drop</b> menu item in the <b outputclass="bold">Devices</b> menu of the virtual
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| 29 | machine, or the <userinput>VBoxManage</userinput> command. </p>
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| 30 | <p>The following drag and drop modes are available: </p>
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| 31 | <ul>
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| 32 | <li>
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| 33 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Disabled.</b> Disables the drag
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| 34 | and drop feature entirely. This is the default when creating a
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| 35 | new VM.
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| 36 | </p>
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| 37 | </li>
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| 38 | <li>
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| 39 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Host To Guest.</b> Enables drag
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| 40 | and drop operations from the host to the guest only.
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| 41 | </p>
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| 42 | </li>
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| 43 | <li>
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| 44 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Guest To Host.</b> Enables drag
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| 45 | and drop operations from the guest to the host only.
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| 46 | </p>
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| 47 | </li>
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| 48 | <li>
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| 49 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Bidirectional.</b> Enables drag
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| 50 | and drop operations in both directions: from the host to the
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| 51 | guest, and from the guest to the host.
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| 52 | </p>
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| 53 | </li>
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| 54 | </ul>
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| 55 | <note>
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| 56 | <p>Drag and drop support depends on the frontend being used. At the moment, only the <ph
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| 57 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/vbox-mgr"/> frontend provides this functionality. </p>
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| 58 | </note>
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| 59 | <p>To use the <userinput>VBoxManage</userinput> command to control the current drag and drop mode, see <xref
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| 60 | href="vboxmanage.dita#vboxmanage"/>. The <userinput>modifyvm</userinput> and <userinput>controlvm</userinput>
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| 61 | commands enable setting of a VM's current drag and drop mode from the command line. </p>
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| 62 | </body>
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| 63 | </topic>
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