Test your applications in a sandbox

Message

keveen · #1 Post by **keveen** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 12:07 pm

I have discovered a near perfect program that allows you to test out any program in a secure sandboxed area without contaminating your registry or Windows folder. Of course it is well known in geek circles (no offence at all) but perhaps people in this forum will find it essential too.

It's Sandboxie from - http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?GettingStarted and what it basically does is create a virtual environment simulating Windows but only using the files needed by the program you are installing. It copies into the virtual environment the relevant Registry section - the place where all the crap goes - and any system files needed by the program installer. You can also use it for browsing - and all your browsing downloads and cookies are saved into the mirror image system area.

In practical terms what you see on your PC is a folder called Sandbox. When you have finished testing and browsing and you want to clean up, you delete the entire folder and all the rubbish disappears into the trash and your original folders or registry are not touched at all. Brilliant.

Why is this relevant to this forum? Because you can install programs such as nPassword in the sandbox and then copy across only the basic program onto your usb drive or whatever. Many of the programs although clean and portable, do install uninstall info and the like, although no dlls or other files that degrade their portability. I copied nPassword onto my usb drive by installing into the sandbox first. I then copied the basic exe file which is all the program actually needs to run, onto my usb drive.

I hope this information also protects other users from the poison of trojans and viruses too.

[Moderator note: signature had spammy links. Removed.]

Ennovy · #2 Post by **Ennovy** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:41 pm

Hello keveen

Thanks for sharing this information with us, but using sandboxie to test portability has been discussed here before http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... =sandboxie

That's why I also started to use sandboxie and I agree with you it's a great tool

brewabel · #3 Post by **brewabel** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:03 am

Has this been made portable? I've seen a few other threads that have some pretty lengthy commentaries to make it so, just wondering if there's an easier way.

zikarus · #4 Post by **zikarus** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 4:57 am

http://www.sandboxie.com/phpbb/viewtopi ... =9952#9952

BR
z.

helphope · #5 Post by **helphope** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 6:57 am

Hi everybody,

and my compliments to the site. This is my first post but I've learned quite "a lot" reading the posts in the forum

I've come across this post

Why is this relevant to this forum? Because you can install programs such as nPassword in the sandbox and then copy across only the basic program onto your usb drive or whatever. Many of the programs although clean and portable, do install uninstall info and the like, although no dlls or other files that degrade their portability. I copied nPassword onto my usb drive by installing into the sandbox first. I then copied the basic exe file which is all the program actually needs to run, onto my usb drive.

and I was wondering if I understand well: you mean that I can install a program in sandboxie and then extract the exe, ini and dat files so that it can run whithout leaving any debris in the registry?

One more question . I've been trying to download portable sandboxie but every attempt was pointless. Can anyone give me a link, please?

Thanks for every help

zikarus · #6 Post by **zikarus** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 7:53 am

Strange - the Rapidshare-Link for the actual v 2.2.10 you will find in the thread I have linked to two posts above works fine for me.

Do not forget to read the instructions though:
You will have to download the 'normal' Sandboxie v. 3.00 too (and extract it into the Sandboxie Portable directory structure), before it will work. The Sandboxie Portable download only contains the launcher for Sandboxie, not the program itself...

spacemonkey · #7 Post by **spacemonkey** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 8:05 am

Just tried the above link by zikarus... works ok for me. the link on that page your after is http://rapidshare.com/files/47854280/Sa ... 0.zip.html

And whilst your making apps portable... try the download at the bottom of this page http://resurrected.blogsome.com/2007/04 ... thinstall/
I've been playing with it for a few days, nice n simple

Although I do prefer using redllar's JauntPE

helphope · #8 Post by **helphope** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 8:26 am

thanks a lot for the quick reply.

i've found interesting - as far as I can understand - this discussion

http://resurrected.blogsome.com/2007/04 ... thinstall/

.

I've also tried to follow the discussion on JauntPe some time ago, but there are so many things I don't understand.
As an almost total beginner it would be a dream to find a tutorial which goes from zero up to the point; but I do'nt mean about these applications which build portable programs, but also about the registry and settings and so on.

Thanks again