Sandboxie employs sandboxing technology. Similar to a normal sandbox in a playground, sandboxing technology lets you play (with programs) in a safe area. Sandboxie can run programs in a virtual isolated space or container in your hard drive thereby preventing these programs from making permanent changes to other programs and data in your computer. Think of this virtual isolated space a copy of your computer or a part of your computer that a program can use. It will appear as a real resource (hard drive, etc...) to the program, but it actually just a copy. If a malicious program runs in the sandbox, it can't do anything to your computer, only to the copy of the components of your computer. Afterwards, one can easily delete the contents of the sandbox and come out unharmed even if you run the malicious program. However, just take note that this applies to any program: be it good or bad.
The sad thing is that Sandboxie only runs on the Windows OS.
Sandboxie gives a list of the following benefits on its website at http://www.sandboxie.com/.
- Secure Web Browsing: Malicious software picked up by the browser (intentional or unintentional download) is trapped in the sandbox and can be deleted trivially. This is my main use for Sanboxie. So whenever I visit an unknown website, I use a sandboxed web browser.
- Enhanced Privacy: Browsing history, cookies, and cached temporary files collected while Web browsing stay in the sandbox and don't leak into Windows.
- Secure E-mail: Viruses and other malicious software that might be hiding in your email can't break out of the sandbox and can't infect your real system.
- Windows Stays Lean: Prevent wear-and-tear in Windows by installing software into an isolated sandbox.
Seems good? =) It's because it is. Sandboxie rocks! The same sandboxing technology is used in the Comodo Internet Security Premium, Avast, and many other defensive and anti-malware programs.
