How do I enable the shared clipboard in VirtualBox?

With Guest Additions installed, the clipboard of your guest OS can be shared with your host OS.

Highlight the Guest VBox in the VirtualBox console, open General -> Advanced. Here you can choose between various Shared Clipboard settings: Disabled, Guest to Host, Host to Guest or Bidirectional

Windows 7 64-bit host, Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit guest.

I enabled clipboard and drag and drop before installing Guest Additions. After installing Guest additions clipboard and drag n drop did not work. I disabled clipboard and drag n drop, uninstalled guest additions, rebooted, reinstalled guest additions - still failed.

To fix I did this:

Uninstalled guest additions and disabled clipboard and drag and drop. Then from the terminal I used

$ apt-get install make gcc linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Reinstall (should be error free), reboot, enable clipboard and drag and drop. Voilà!

In VirtualBox Windows versions 5.1.8 until 5.2.6 (maybe older or future versions as well) it is accessible in two ways:

1. General settings
2. Active guest account window

If someone knows what other versions work as well, please add them as comments.

1st Version: General settings

Machine>Settings:

General>Advanced>Shared Clipboard

2nd Version: Active guest account window

Devices>Shared Clipboard>Desired option Available options: 1. Shared Clipboard>Disabled 2. Shared Clipboard>Host to Guest 3. Shared Clipboard>Guest to Host 4. Shared Clipboard>Bidirectional