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sandboxie-plus/sandboxie

📈 Trending★ 18,367CAudience · developerComplexity · 4/5ActiveLicenseSetup · hard

TLDR

Windows tool that runs programs in an isolated sandbox so they can't affect your system. Changes stay contained and can be discarded when done.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Sandboxie))
    What it does
      Isolates programs
      Captures file changes
      Protects registry
      Discards sandbox
    Key features
      Snapshots
      Network firewall
      Memory limits
      Encrypted sandboxes
    Editions
      Sandboxie Plus
      Sandboxie Classic
    Use cases
      Run untrusted apps
      Safe web browsing
      Test software
    Tech details
      Windows 7 and later
      64-bit only
      Community maintained

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Run suspicious or untrusted programs safely without risking your system.

USE CASE 2

Browse the web and download files without permanent changes to your computer.

USE CASE 3

Test software in an isolated environment and discard changes afterward.

USE CASE 4

Protect sensitive data by running programs in encrypted sandboxes with network restrictions.

Tech stack

CWindowsWin32 API

Getting it running

Difficulty · hard Time to first run · 1h+

Requires Windows development environment, Visual Studio/compiler, and understanding of Win32 API; building from C source is non-trivial.

Open source community fork; use freely for personal and commercial purposes with appropriate attribution to the community maintainers.

In plain English

Sandboxie is a Windows security tool that runs programs inside an isolated environment called a sandbox. When a program runs inside Sandboxie, any changes it makes, to files on disk or to the Windows registry, are captured in a contained area and do not affect the rest of the operating system. This makes it safe to run untrusted programs or browse the web without risk of permanent changes or infection spreading to the host system. When finished, the sandbox contents can be discarded. The software is available in two editions. Sandboxie Plus has a modern interface and supports a long list of additional features, including snapshot management (saving and restoring sandbox states), a per-sandbox network firewall, privacy-protected sandboxes, limits on memory usage, encrypted sandboxes, DNS control, and the ability to route a sandboxed process's traffic through a proxy. Sandboxie Classic retains the older interface and does not expose these newer capabilities through its UI. The project is a community-maintained fork that became open source after the original developer released the source code. It runs on Windows 7 and later (64-bit). The readme notes this is a community fork and not the official continuation of the pre-open-source development.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I set up Sandboxie Plus to run a suspicious executable safely and then delete all traces of it?
Prompt 2
Show me how to create a snapshot in Sandboxie Plus, run a program, and restore to the saved state.
Prompt 3
How can I configure per-sandbox network firewall rules in Sandboxie Plus to block certain connections?
Prompt 4
What's the difference between Sandboxie Plus and Sandboxie Classic, and which should I use for my needs?
Prompt 5
How do I route a sandboxed application's traffic through a proxy using Sandboxie Plus?
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Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.