Is there a way I can have a VM gain access to my computer?

Question

I would like to have a VM to look at how applications appear and to develop OS-specific applications, however, I want to keep all my code on my Windows machine so if I decide to nuke a VM or anything like that, it's all still there.

If it matters, I'm using VirtualBox.

Answer 1

You should always be able make a normal network connection between the VM and the hosting OS, as though it were another computer on the same network. Which, in some sense, it is.

Answer 2

This is usually handled with network shares. Share your code folder from your host machine and access it from the VMs.

Answer 3

Aside from network shares, another tool to use for this is a version-control system.

Answer 4

Are there any gotchas when dealing with Windows/Unix, Windows/Linux, or Windows/BSD that I should know about? Or not really?