Working with shared folders in VMware Workstation and Debian guest

The following steps helped me to share folders from VMware workstation running on Windows and Debian guest.

On VMware workstation

1. Select the virtual machine, where folders to be shared
2. Right-click and select Settings from the drop-down menu
3. Go to Options tab and select Shared Folders
4. Ensure to select the radio option Always enabled
5. Press the button titled Add... ; follow the wizard and provide values for Host path and Name

On Debian guest

1. Ensure to install open-vm-tools-desktop or open-vm-tools
2. Ensure the command, vmware-hgfsclient, lists shared folders (configured previously in VMware workstation)
3. To user mount the shared folder, use the syntax vmhgfs-fuse .host:/$(vmware-hgfsclient) ~/<mountpoint>. For example, vmhgfs-fuse .host:/$(vmware-hgfsclient)/Users/sb/Dropbox ~/Dropbox
4. To system mount, use the syntax sudo mount -t fuse.vmhgfs-fuse .host:/ /mnt/hgfs -o allow_other
5. To unmount, use sudo umount <mountpoint>