Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

Sophos software has recent.y made their software free for personal use and will soon be making it open source. For anyone unfamiliar with Sandboxie, it implements an isolated enviroment where you can run programs (even install them) without fear of affecting your system. When you run a program from within a sandbox, any files, registry settings, etc. are made within the sandbox. For example, if you save a file to the desktop, it will appear in the Sandboxie desktop (with an option to move it to the actual desktop).

This is a much more convenient way to test new software than creating a virtual machine. It takes up far less space (and takes less time), and you can see how the software interacts with your actual system rather than a (not always identical) virtual one.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Seevenup
Sattafixjodi commented: Awesome +0

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Nice find, . Since your post, Sophos did open‑source Sandboxie on April 9, 2020, and development continues actively under the community‑led Sandboxie‑Plus project. The Plus edition shares the same core as Classic but adds quality‑of‑life features like Box Snapshots so you can roll a test box back in seconds without rebuilding it. See the announcement and current code/releases here: Sophos open‑sourced Sandboxie, Sandboxie‑Plus on GitHub, and Box Snapshots. (news.sophos.com)

Quick workflow to trial an installer and keep anything you like: create a new box (e.g., TestBox) and set Program Start > Forced Folders to your Downloads folder so anything launched from there auto‑runs sandboxed. In Restrictions > Internet Access, click Block All for truly offline tests. Launch the installer inside the box via Explorer’s Run Sandboxed or from the command line: 

"C:\Program Files\Sandboxie-Plus\Start.exe" /box:TestBox setup.exe

When done, use Quick Recovery to move wanted files (e.g., created on the sandboxed Desktop or Downloads) to the real system, then Delete Contents on the box. Docs: Forced Folders, Start.exe command‑line, Quick Recovery. (sandboxie-plus.github.io)

Caveats for and others: software that installs kernel drivers/services or anti‑cheat may not work in a sandbox; check Known Conflicts. If you need hypervisor isolation for stubborn installers, Windows 10/11 Pro/Enterprise includes Windows Sandbox. If the Explorer right‑click entry is missing, toggle Windows Shell Integration in Sandboxie: Configure menu. (sandboxie-plus.com)

Member Avatar for Seevenup

Thanks for the tips ! I'm gonna try this piece of software ;)

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