VirtualBox 101: Enable USB in Winhoes XP on Mac OS X host (same for Unices)

Hello! Why do I let others keep on forcing me to do things that are against my will (yet I enjoy them)? Crap!

I don't want to jinx but my target for the year is a Solaris certification. I know, I know, I got a very long way to go and steep hill to climb but I'm not that easy to give up!

You might wonder, what the hell is the connection? Anyone care? Well, certainly no one but just want to shout a piece of my mind anyway - remember, I get to write whatever I want, ayt? This is to "force" me to really go for it for I will be judged from here on. Crap! Stressful!

Going back, I got some materials - Tats note, legally obtained - in preparation but the sad part is, it will run only in Winhoes (now, this is really crap!). I really got no choice but to install XP in my VirtualBox. I planned to share folders from my Mac but from what I read, it is still not supported (Note however that Shared Folders are only supported with Windows (2000 or newer), Linux and Solaris guests.). So, I'll use my flash drive (SanDisk Cruzer Micro - 4GB, 16GB looks awesome BUT it burns a deep hole in your pocket!). With this, I have to activate USB in the settings of my Guest OS. After I "checked" to enable it and run my guest OS, nothing showed up in XP. Neither it was detected in VirtualBox yet I can see it mounted in my Mac. I tried to create a Filter with empty details for I knew nothing about it, and still nothing. Now, I was forced to read the user guide (when everything doesn't work, check the manual.. perfect), and I found this to get the info I need for the Filter:

$ VBoxManage list usbhost

VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 2.2.0

(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Host USB Devices:

UUID: 98ac0131-bc9e-48f1-8dd9-9512cba98fba

VendorId: 0x045e (045E)

ProductId: 0x0737 (0737)

Revision: 1.0 (0100)

Manufacturer: Microsoft

Product: Compact Optical Mouse 500

Address: p=0x0737;v=0x045e;s=0x000005f7ad04cd23;l=0x06200000

Current State: Unavailable

...

UUID: 796f5590-1ed2-45fc-9c98-6baec073ad0e

VendorId: 0x0781 (0781)

ProductId: 0x5406 (5406)

Revision: 2.0 (0200)

Manufacturer: SanDisk

Product: U3 Cruzer Micro

SerialNumber: 08777107D092855A

Address: p=0x5406;v=0x0781;s=0x0000022d92a681f1;l=0x26200000

Current State: Unavailable

Armed, I filled in the details and re-started XP and voila, it's now working. Couldn't be happier.