Patent ID: 8037473

Claim:
A computer implemented method for sharing licensed applications between virtual machines, the computer implemented method comprising: intercepting an event comprising an attempted access of a file stored in a hard disk of a guest operating system, wherein a file type of the file has no association with any application installed on the guest operating system; responsive to intercepting the event, identifying an application installed on a host operating system, wherein the application is configured to open the file; establishing an association of the file type with the application on the host operating system; responsive to establishing the association, copying the file from the hard disk of the guest operating system to a temporary location on the host operating system; opening the file using the application that is associated with the file type on the host operating system to allow access to the file; copying the file back to the hard disk of the guest operating system if content of the file changed while the file was open; and responsive to copying the file back to the hard disk of the guest operating system, performing a cleanup of the host operating system.