GesWall Free Edition Questions

Hello to all,

I recently installed the latest freeware version of GesWall, and i must say I love how it protects applications and files from changing most system settings on an OS. What I really love is GesWall works in a LUA wheereas Sandboxie wouldn't.

My major problem is with files downloaded through firefox which is protected by GesWall. When I use GesWall to protect firefox, I know it flags files that you download as an unsafe application. Of course I found out early that you can't change it to a safe application without buying a Pro license.

So my two questions are:

1. How do I make it so that I can use files normally that are tagged "unsafe" by GesWall? For example, I have an antivirus program I want to install but GesWall won't let it install the driver it needs to work properly. I tried right clicking GesWall and disable policy notifications (thinking it would allow me to disable GesWall temporarily so I can install this program, but alas this is nto true. So what can I do to make these files trusted or at the very least so GesWall isn't preventing this program from installing properly?

2. I like using GesWall to isolate firefox when I'm surfing the web, that I think is the strong point of the free version. Is GesWall pretty secure out of the box with it's pre-defined rules? I only ask because I find the rules to be a little daunting and I wouldn't dare change them. So I'm hoping the default rules are secure and will prevent malware from installing.

If someone could assist me I'd truly appreciate it.

 

Is there no option to right click the file and then select "Label as trsuted" in free version?

If not you can simple copy/ cut and paste the file to another partition/ hard disk. It will remove the untrusted tag.

Default rules are secure. No need to play with them.

 

There is an option to right click a file and label as safe but it says that feature is only available in the pro version.

I notice that WinPatrol has a discount - would this be a good alternative to GesWall?

 

Not to stray off topic, but could someone explain to me how a product such as GesWall provides more protection than Vista's UAC? I am not claiming it does or not, it's just that there seems to be some overlap and some explanation of what does not overlap would be appreciated.

thanks

 

When UAC prmpts you - it's asking for a program to have elevated (administrative) privileges). Let's say you have malware and UAC prompts you - well if you run it and click continue to UAC it's too late and you're infected because you gave that program full access and UAC won't prompt you again for any additional admin rights required for that program.

GesWall is a policy based sandbox program - which restricts isolated programs from changing critical system areas (no editing windows directory for example). I hope this clears things up.

 

BTW if I create a small partition and move the flagged as unsafe files to this partition and then move them back, do they get flagged as unsafe again? I think this is a bigger workaround then needs to be done - or perhaps good selling tactics for the creators to have people buy the pro version.

 

You can simply run the downloaded app and then when prompted choose not to isolate it which means its trusted.

 

I've tried that too but GesWall won't allow the antivirus program to install it's driver (I'm testing pc tools antivirus new version 4). It halts on install because it wants to install a driver which geswall is preventing.

 

Changing GesWall's security level to low before downloading the program you want to install does not help?

 

How does one go about changing GesWall security level to low?

 

You should be able to open GesWall's GUI through the tray icon.
Then just left click with your mouse on low should do it.
I don't have GesWall installed anymore, at least not at the moment, but here's a screenshot from the user guide.

 

Putting the security level at low worked perfectly. One last question. Let's say I download something with the GesWall security setting on the normal setting. GesWall isolates firefox and I download a file. Now I know normally it gets tagged as untrusted. If I were to close the browser, then lower the security level to low, wouuld it allow me to install programs normally? Or do I have to close firefox and lower the security setting and then load firefox again and download whatever file I want to download so it's not listed as untrusted and works normally.

 

I didn't know this. Is this same limitation also found in SuRun or are you simply running a Limited User Account and discovered SandboxIE cannot run in LUA?

 

wha!? my cousin is running sandboxie in a LUA on windows xp pro with SRP enabled with no problems. maybe something is conflicting with your sandboxie install?

 

The best way in my opinion is to copy/ cut n paste to different partition and then the taggging will go. It wil not come back after that. No need to play with security levels off n on.

 

I am running Vista SP1. When I am the administrator, everything is fine. When I create a Limited User account (instead of an admin account) Sandboxie is unable to load it's driver (so the sandbox icon in the tray is red). It gives me an error message I believe that says it's unable to run it's driver.

Is there a way to change this? I supposed you could make sandboxie run as an administrator but then wouldn't that defeat the purpose of running in a LUA if sandboxie has full privileges and so does anything running inside the sandbox?

If I could get sandboxie to work properly I would most likely switch back.

 

EDIT: I just downloaded and installed the latest version of Sandboxie (3.26) and it has apparently resolved the issue of not being able to run in a LUA in Vista SP1. When logging into an LUA, I just double click on the Sandboxed Web Browser Icon and everything works fine. Although there is no Sandboxie start icon next to the clock on start up of windows until I double click the shortcut that says Sandbox Web browser, which is fine by me as long as it works. I'm sorry for the confusion everyone. Apparently this issue was recently fixed which I'm grateful for.

Does this mean that Sandboxie is now running with admin privileges in a LUA? I would assume it isn't.

Now i want to uninstall GesWall. Does GesWall uninstall properly? I know it's a complex program with a lot of parts - so I just wanted to make sure the unisntaller was able to properly uninstall GesWall.

 

Do NOT run Sandboxie and GesWall together.
I had a bad experiance doing this once.
GesWall's uninstaller always worked well for me.

 

Thanks - I made sure to uninstall GesWall first. I'm glad to see that Sandboxie now works in a LUA. I think it's a great program and once I get a little more money I'd like to buy the registered version.

Thanks for everyone's help and I'm done with this thread, but perhaps someone else will find it useful.

 

Will I potentially cause any problems if I change an application's settings, add firefox bookmarks, etc while in isolated mode?

 

When you isolate a browser with GesWall, you shouldn't have any problems saving bookmarks or settings at all.

 

Most of settings are retained. No problems. Occasional settings are not saved and u need to apply them while browser running out of GesWall.