The Firmware Page

Guys,

Perhaps like some of you, I've been aware of a Freeware program called 'SandBoxie' for some time now.

However, I've only just got around to trying it...VERY nice

In essence, what SandBoxie does is to ban ALL writes to your real data on your Hard Drive and instead, divert writes to its own cache (created on your drive)... in other words, a Sand Box protection (hence the title of course).

An example:

You can fire-up your Browser (under SandBoxie) and go/do what you like on the Web.

At the end of your session, you can elect to DELETE ALL of that activity (in the Sand Box) so that none of what you have done is on your system for real!!!

You need to 'play' with this to understand the benefits (I tried it out firstly on a VM (Virtual Machine) but now have it installed for real).

It is very flexible, and I'm still discovering its many virtues.

Give it a try, BUT, be aware that when running with SandBoxie, if you elect (as I do) to delete the Sand Box at the end of a session, ALL of whatever it was that you were doing whilst running SandBoxie will be lost (but of course, that's the whole point of it in the first place).

In other words, make sure you have the concept of what SandBoxie is doing before you use it in earnest!!!

I should also mention that it has a voracious appetite for drive space so you need plenty of spare (i.e. just firing up SandBoxie will create - in my case - an 8Meg cache file before it does anything...hence the 'delete' option).

Go here:

http://www.sandboxie.com

Enjoy (but take care).

tjs.

Good find, tjs!

Hi Chef,

Yep, the more I see of this, the more I like

BUT, of course, nothing is guaranteed to work 100%...as I'm sure you all know.

So far, this is 'as good as it gets for free'..

Thanks for taking the time to respond Chef

Terry.

nice post Terry, this is really good, and free

Just for the record, my thanks to chef & AstraUK were meant to say that these Guy's provide a relatively 'safe' environment for the likes of me to 'Post' into....and for you to Download from!!!

If it wasn't for these Guys, well...

Thanks again for all your (unpaid) work

Terry.

-signed

Guys,

Sad to say, it has now occurred to me that there is a potential 'sinister' side to this (and I'll leave it to you and your own interpretations)

Let me repeat that the whole point of SandBoxie is to, innocently, use the Web so that, for example, you can install software that you might just want to evaluate without committing your system to it...so you could, for example, install (say) a new Browser, not like it, and delete the fact that you ever tried it (in your Registry etc.) in the first place.

Oh dear...

What sick times we live in (if you get my point).

Sorry to get 'heavy', but we must stay aware.

tjs.

In case you didn't know...

How do you establish that you are currently running an App (IE, My Prog etc.) within a SandBox?

Easy...

Just take a peek at the Caption (Title Bar) of the Window (that's the Blue Bar across the top of the Window (screen) ) and, if you are 'Sandboxed', you will see this:

[#] Whatever [#]

In other words, you are in SandBox if you see [#] followed by whatever it is that you are running, followed by [#]

As ever, you MUST not consider this as a 'catch-all' solution, rather, another defence in your 'Bad Guys' armour!

Hope this helps.

tjs.

Hey Terry,

you may check out the wonderful Xen (linux).
Quite a great thingie.

Hi Chef,

I'll try to, but as things stand, I only develop software for M$ (Windows).

Shame on me

At present, I draw the line at no software for Vi$ta, but I have to admit to be committed to M$

Actually, that's not entirely true....I write in Delphi (and others), and not ONE of my current Software projects uses M$ tools (apart from FrontPage 2000)

Take care.

Terry.


Terry.

Sounds nice. Is there a noticable performance overhead? Does it take a long time to commit changes if you choose to or to wipe out changes?

nope its very quick, although if you have AOL as your host, it doesn't work, but its handy for explorer etc

Guys,

Sandboxie has gone from a ('stable release') 2.86, to a Beta 2.94.23

It seems stable enough to me (although, not extensively tested of course).

For the 'Brave of Heart', it's here:

http://sandboxie.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1562

Take care.

tjs

thanks for the info terry, will give it a go

Hi A,

The first thing that I noticed is that 2.94 uses FAR less disc space (cache) when you first Boot it...how about you?

Terry.

For those of you trying Sandboxie, the latest Beta release (v2.86 is still considered to be the most recent stable version), v2.94.25 is here:

http://www.sandboxie.com/2.9x/Sandboxie ... -29425.exe

Seems OK to me so far

tjs.

Sandboxie v3 was released today (10th July 2007) and is available here:

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?DownloadSandboxie

MD5 Checksum for download is:

e3fe29ed46b4fcac6fe0e6a64127d300

In case I haven't, I should stress that I have absolutely nothing to do with Sandboxie or its development..I just like it (er...in modem parlance, I think "It's Kool")

tjs.

Sandboxie v3.00.05 is out

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?DownloadSandboxie

MD5: A921A33D57C30AF345FA1B163E2F40A5

tjs.

Now at v3.00.07

MD5: B28C9D8FAB2343A40930CDCB72F737EE

Here:

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?DownloadSandboxie

tjs

WOW..a bit like Buses...they are coming three at a time

v3.00.08 is out...see previous links for this very worthwhile Freeware!!!

At this rate of updates, I'll not trouble you any more for a while, rather, leave it to you to check for latest version(s).

Cheers all.

tjs.

Well, to spare the Bandwidth, this will be my last update on Sandboxie for a while (the updates are coming daily)

So, v3.00.10 is now available and, reputably, 3.01 is 'coming soon' (same link as above)

It's still great stuff..if you haven't, give it a try Guys

tjs.

OK Guys,

We are now at 3.00.17

tjs.

It seems to be a bit slow at starting up programs.

Hi DK,

Yes, it maybe but, as far as I understand (and bear in mind that I didn't write Sandboxie), it has to create a complete 'dummy' Registry entry in its own work space (which of course you can opt to delete at the end of the session) so that it can ensure a (secure) Sandbox...hope that made sense.

tjs.