I just installed VMware player, have Windows 7 running on my Ubuntu 12.04 host. Here’s my way setting up shared folder on Ubuntu host with Windows guest, also work on Windows host with Ubuntu guest.

First of all, install vmware tool by menu “Virtual Machine -> Install VMware Tools” while guest machine boot up.

Then in Ubuntu Linux. Right click on a folder you want to share (here’s ~/Downloads/) and choose ‘Sharing Options’

Check options you need. It may prompt up a window and guide you installing samba if need.

Now in Windows 7, open up Computer and click ‘Map Network Driver’

In next window, browser and select the folder you shared in Ubuntu.

Finally, you will see this shared folder via Windows file browser: