LIGHTWEIGHT VIRTUAL MACHINES AND INCREASING DENSITY OF VIRTUAL MACHINES IN A COMPUTER SYSTEM

A system, method and computer program product for managing files of Virtual Machines, including launching a plurality of Virtual Machines in a computing system having a host OS; using a content of at least one file of the host OS as a shared file; using a re-direct, providing access to the shared file when any Virtual Machine attempts to access its private file; using copy-on-write, making a copy of the shared file if the Virtual Machine attempts to modify the shared file, and placing a copy of the shared file in a private area of the corresponding Virtual Machine.