Thread: The Single Greatest Security Program - Sandboxie Tutorial (w/ Pics)

For me, sandboxie has replaced my antivirus completely.
It is pretty much the only security I use, and it works infinitely better than anything else I can think of.

I considered making a tutorial before but it wasn't til recently that they really increased their support range. Now it works fully with 64bit systems.

According to their own website..

Sandboxie runs your programs in an isolated space which prevents them from making permanent changes to other programs and data in your computer.

In layman's terms, any program you open through sandboxie can do NO damage to your computer.
You can open hundreds of viruses, anything you want, with 0 consequences.

How can this help you?
Well first of all, any cracks, keygens or other suspicious exe files can be opened and used without causing any damage to your computer.
You won't need to worry about getting viruses or spy/malware from visiting a website or from your email, as long as you use sandboxie!

It's simple really. I could sum up the tutorial in one sentence.
Download/install sandboxie, right click an exe and select Run Sandboxed.
Sure beats wasting 5 minutes scanning it or testing it on another computer

Even better, you can set it to automatically open in a sandboxed environment in the settings.

Here's a bit more thorough instructions for those who aren't self-sufficient when it comes to computers.
Well first download it from here.
Install it.

Double click the yellow sandbox in the taskbar at the bottom right
Heres the first thing you'll see.


Might not look like much yet but this thing packs a powerful punch.



Now we can start setting up which programs open automatically sandboxed.
Select Sandbox up top.
Then defaultbox. (You can also access this menu by right clicking the yellow sandbox in the taskbar)

Heres a quick overview of what these do.

• Run sandboxed lets you run a couple default programs such as web browser and email client.
• Terminate programs will end everything that is sandboxed.
• Quick recovery allows you to grab files that are downloaded into a sandboxed environment, for example. There is also immediate recovery, which you can find in the settings.
• Delete contents deletes everything in the sandboxed environment.
• Explore contents allows you to see the files being used by the sandbox.
• You can rename or remove the sandbox called DefaultBox.

We're going to select Sandbox Settings.


You can set all your programs on a drive or just within a folder to run sandboxed, by going to Program Start > Forced Folders or Forced Programs.

Going to Applications gives you a nice list of programs that you can setup to run sandboxed


Anything that a program accesses once opened in a sandboxed environment is safe.
If a program opens another program it will also be within the environment.
Totally secure!

The sandboxie control also doubles as a "task manager" because everything accessed by the program also shows up here. In the example below, I opened an FTP program sandboxed and it opened ftpte.exe.


It is a good idea to make your email client and web browser run sandboxed.
Apart from that, I only sandbox suspicious files. You shouldn't ever open up an unknown exe unless it is sandboxed. Remember, right click > run sandboxed. Easy as pie!

I recommend going to Delete > Invocation and selecting Automatically delete contents of sandbox. This can save you a good chunk of hdd space.

Finally, you can control the access specific files/programs have.
Go to Restrictions.


You also might want to disable some programs from accessing the internet.

Thats everything important about Sandboxie!
If you have questions, you can ask me here.
I hope everyone makes good use of it, and if you like it support the devs and buy it!

Great little app, I used it for a long time and it's proved extremely useful, everyone who wants to improve his/hers security should give it a try.

Seems like a good supplement to AV, and essential to anyone who tests out Beta apps. My question is if you do run an infected program, how would you even know? I would think virii, trojans, etc are very stealthy and you'd never know something was infected unless you noticed damage to your data or OS. Also, say you installed an infected app in your sandbox, wouldn't that also block any AV program you do use from detecting it?

I do see a ton of benefit in running your browser and email client in a sandbox, but it doesn't seem to do quite enough for it to replace my AV entirely.

Jingleheimer, great question.
In the sandboxie control (similar to taskmanager), you can see everything that is accessed by the suspicious program.
If it's anything abnormal, such as a crack accessing Explorer, you know it would be trouble.

I showed an example in the tutorial where CuteFTP accesses ftpte.exe.
So assuming that ftpte was dangerous, you could upload it to Virustotal.com and have it tested by around 30 antivirus engines, and see what they conclude.
If they say it's clean then you can safely open it without sandboxie.

The trouble with AV's are that they are all capable of missing stuff.
That's why there are sites that scan a file using so many different engines, like virustotal.
Sandboxie doesn't even need to worry about missing anything.

Thank you kon, this is a very good tut.

virtual pc is something else that u can try....firstly its made by microsoft :D
although u'll need some spare windows licenses etc since it actually emulates a pc....hence the name "virtual pc" and like u all i do is run viruses inside it ....lol and sometimes diagnose network problems since i deliberately not run antiviruses/firewalls etc cos anything bad can just be reversed by just telling the virtual pc NOT to save changes to the virtual HDD....

sandboxie's good, since it uses less memory and doesnt have a boot up time ;) just freaks me out tho that it just sits in ur pc all day...lol

Xalos. That sounds an awful lot like virtualbox and VMWare.
I would prefer them over something made by windows though, TBH.
I use VirtualBox all the time and it's great, but it takes too much time and effort for this purpose.
Also if you mess up the OS on a virtual box, then you have to reinstall it, whereas with sandboxie thats not an issue.

They do have some similarities though, and if you have another purpose for using a Virtual box such as compatibility issues, then thats a viable method.

I had never heard of this little powerhouse program before, appreciate you passing the info along to us. I'll definetly check it out.

Originally Posted by konVILEuted

Xalos. That sounds an awful lot like virtualbox and VMWare.
I would prefer them over something made by windows though, TBH.
I use VirtualBox all the time and it's great, but it takes too much time and effort for this purpose.
Also if you mess up the OS on a virtual box, then you have to reinstall it, whereas with sandboxie thats not an issue.

They do have some similarities though, and if you have another purpose for using a Virtual box such as compatibility issues, then thats a viable method.

wow, i totally think the opposite!
i actually prefer it because it IS made by windows ;) lol

as to messing up the virtual box, the secret is to make a copy of the virtual hdd before u mess it up, that way u can just delete, and cut&paste back the original hdd ;)

if im not mistaken the sandboxie actaully integrates itself into windows? that's the only thing i dislike - it constantly running as a process....
but despite this, i would highly recommend sandboxie and any of the programs we have both mentioned!

if everyone ran things in an isolated memory space, the internet would be virtually virus free and we would have much fewer zombie bots AND i would have much less spam in my inbox ;)

haha wishful thinking....less spam in my inbox....that'll be the day