Safely test new software with Sandboxie
- Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 20:20
- Software
Sandboxie is a program that can create a ’Sandboxed’ environment on your PC within-which you can install and/or run programs or browse the net. Any data writing operations that the Sandboxed applications perform can then be rolled back and/or eliminated. The net effect of this is to create a kind of undo mechanism that can be used to test out programs without damaging the system or surf the web without risk of infecting the system with any kind of malware.
The Sandbox defined: a Sandbox is a virtual environment that captures all disk-writing operations. For example, if you run your browser through Sandboxie and surf the net, all of the cookies, cached files, and downloaded files (including any malware that may sneak in), or even any entries written to the registry will actually be made within the Sandbox. Note that these files will also appear in your file system as well (for example, if you download a zip file to the desktop during a Sandboxed browser session it will appear on the desktop where you normally would expect it). However, in fact this zip file is only there virtually, and once you shut Sandboxie down (or empty the contents of the Sandbox) the file will no longer show on the desktop.
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