Sandboxie basics

Illustration of Sandboxie basics

Download offers can be a little bit distasteful; especially when you are weary of downloading adware, malware, or even a virus. Sandboxie is a great way to make your computer safe if you ever happen to download a virus.

Download Sandboxie here.

Basics

  • Sandboxie runs your programs in an isolated space which prevents them from making permanent changes to other programs and data in your computer.
  • Running your Web browser under the protection of Sandboxie means that all malicious software downloaded by the browser is trapped in the sandbox and can be discarded trivially.
  • If you are still having trouble understanding, think of a literal sandbox in a backyard. The sand kept inside the box represents the content you download for the offers.

How to use

  1. Download and install. Open Sandboxie by double clicking the shortcut on desktop, it will open your default browser Sandboxied. (To set a certain default browser go to Start Menu > Default Browser > Select the Browser > Click Ok)
  2. To make sure your browser is Sandboxied move your cursor to the top of your screen to see if there is a yellow box over your default browser, or [#] [#] on both sides of your browser title. If you do not see either or, then you are not Sandboxied and you should repeat step one.
  3. Go to the offers area and choose a download offer to attempt/complete.
  4. After you click install or download on an offer, click Save File, then click CLOSE on the box that pops up asking if you want to recover the files.
  5. Open up the download from your download bar.
  6. Give Sandboxie permission for User Account Control.
  7. Accept all add-ons on the download in a slow manner (there will be times when you will be asked to Recover or to Close ALWAYS hit CLOSE).
  8. Run and use the program you downloaded.

Deleting contents (if needed)

  1. Right click the Sandboxie icon in your Start Menu (task bar > DefaultBox > Delete Contents > Delete).
  2. Browser will close and everything will be uninstalled.

Tips

You can set Sandboxie to always show the yellow border without having to scroll to the border.
  • Double click the Sandboxie task bar icon and open the control panel. Click the Sandboxie tab and mouse over default then Sandbox settings. Click on appearance in the left panel, then click the boxes next to show Sandbox name and display Sandbox border. Click OK.
  • While you should never click on recover on the pop up window it is much better to leave it open and just move it to the side while completing the download.
  • You can set it to delete all contents automatically upon closing out all Sandboxie windows. To do this, click on the Sandboxie tab from the control panel then click delete in the left panel, then click on Delete Invocation. Click the box next to Automatically delete contents of Sandboxie and click OK.

Additional Help and FAQ's can be found on www.sandboxie.com.