Sandboxie -- Who has stopped using it and why?

Actually no i did not exclude firefox from OA because i have never ever had to do that.its worth considering but as you said its not a good idea to exclude the browser from the firewall coverage.
As ive said ive never experienced any problems with this combo.but avast seems to be a common denominator also.other firewalls have been experiencing problems with avast.

 

I've resolved the problem I was having so now using Sandboxie again.

 

Emsisoft will eventually go that way(heard from a source- Emsisoft is working at it). No point in installing separate fw and av and calling them internet security. And OA will be extinct altogether. No free or paid. But then again. Things change. And my source could talk crap. Only time will tell.

 

I really love the SBIE, especially its delete option. But I don't want to use the paid version as a lot of other free stuff is around. And I don't like the limitations of freebie.

 

well if emsisoft does merge OA into some form of internet security suite then good for them.it will make an already strong firewall even better.

 

The protection in both versions is exactly the same, that is something that's not so in most commercial products that also have a free version.

Bo

 

It sure will. I just love Emsisoft products. I'm gonna use try out EAM when version 7 comes out.

 

This is true, but there is no force start and multiple sandboxes in freebie.

 

You can use multiple sandboxes in the free version, just cant use them at the same time.

You cant force programs in the free version but you can place sandboxed shortcuts in the task bar or desktop to make things a little easier.

Bo

 

How to make the best use of Sandboxie free version?

 

If I was using the free version, I would use it to do the same things that I use the paid version for, that is get programs running sandboxed when they are opened. To me, that's the key of using Sandboxie. If I run every program and every file that I download or get from someone else in a sandbox, I wont get infected. Thats what I found and I believe 100% that that's the way that it is for anyone doing the same. Sandboxing files and programs in the free version is not automatic as in the paid version and a little more thinking is required to get it done but it can be done.

I know you want details but in my opinion, the details are not as important as "making sure that when a program opens, it is open in a sandbox". But I think keeping the default sandbox with settings on default is not a bad idea in order to be able to run all programs that you want at the same time. You can also create a separate sandbox for your browsers where only the browsers would run and restrict it as much as you can for the time when browsing is basically what you are doing. Also, to open all downloads in a sandbox is really easy in the free version. All you really have to do is navigate to then using a sandboxed Windows Explorer. To make it even easier, Sandboxie allows users to create a sandboxed Windows Explorer shortcut which you can place in your desktop or task bar.

Anyway, Sandboxie's free version is great but the paid version is a lot better. The free version can keep you clean as much as the paid version but you ll be more relaxed and you ll enjoy using your computer a lot more when you get a license. Get one...you wont regret it and your computers will be happy.

Bo

 

Thanks, Pete.
You mentioned that you've been "running SBIE, Appguard and OA with no issues. THis is with 32bit, and no AV's running".
Is that with XP?
The issue with OA, SBIE and Chrome, as documented on the OA forum by an Emsisoft employee, involves 64-bit W7.
XP did not have the problem (at least not that I am aware of).

 

Not all but most of my OA & SBIE issues are on Win7 x 64. Had a look at OA again the other day as I really like the idea of it, have used it on and off since the x1 series and love the new file & reg rules.

Unfortunately still 'aw snap' Chrome problems, very slow FF start and Foxit Reader or MS Publisher will not start unless excluded from OA protection. In the firewall if the filter invalid MAC address is selected internet access drops regularly.

All reported. Hopefully they will keep their stated desire to migrate to native x64 with as part of the the version 6 update that will fix this stuff.

Apologies that's more like why I stopped using OA not SBIE but again worth noting I would and do drop apps that conflict with SBIE not the other way around.

Cheers

 

That's exactly how I operate as well, chris1341.

 

I stopped using SBIE just a few days after installing it - for the following reasons:

On my system, when clicking the SBIE icon IE takes 12 seconds (on average) to come completely ready compared to 3 seconds (on average) without SBIE. Furthermore, I didn't realize that even when downloading a file to another partition it still remains 'locked' in the sandbox unless I intentionally 'extract it' to that partition.

In the above regard, I simply prefer the relative ease of using a Light Virtualization app (such as Shadow Defender).

TS

 

You can bypass sandboxing to download files to a folder or partition by applying "File Access > Direct Access" to that folder or partition.

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?ResourceAccessSettings#file

Bo

 

Thanks Bo, but I'll still pass on SBIE (and other 'sandboxers') - in favor of LVs.

TS

 

I had a similar experience. On my system, Firefox takes 6 seconds to load unsandboxed but sandboxed it was taking 12-14 seconds on average. After moving the Sandboxie container folder to a ramdisk, the sandboxed loading time dropped to 8 seconds, just 2 seconds longer than the unsandboxed loading time.

I too use Shadow Defender as my main virtualizer, along with Sandboxie for secure browsing. It is nice not to have to ever reboot the system after browsing no matter what, and holding the container folder in memory makes secure deletion unnecessary.

 

Sandboxie's load time for browsers etc is directly influenced by what other security software you use. I've assumed it is the extra time to load the plug-ins that come with the AV etc or to cope with whatever browser protection the security software is implementing. Having paired it with almost everything else over the years I've found some will double the time to open browsers, others add only a small delay.

Running with SBIE on it's own the delay in opening Iron, that I'm using as I type, is negligible (one of the reasons I use it). I had a look at the new KIS last week and the start time almost trebled from around 4 secs to start and render the 'home' tabs to more than 12 seconds on occasion by way of example.

Minimal impact on SBIE for me (after 1st execution and caching) were EAM, NOD32, Avast and WSA (although you loose functionality). Worse are Kaspersky, MSE and Vipre (although I've not tried latest version). In terms of FW/Hips Outpost, Comodo and PFW seem to have little impact. The same can't be said for OA I'm afraid in my experience.

If you start, as I do, with the premise that SBIE is your security cornerstone then you find something that works with it. If it is an additional support tool for your core choice for security then it simply won't work well with your choices all of the time.

Cheers

 

pegr,
what ramdisk program did you use and thanks.
Gary

 

I think this is true. One of the main factors responsible for the increased loading time is that some files have to be initially copied into the sandbox. If using a real-time AV with file read/write checking, this will add a further delay. I found the loading time is also affected by what browser plug-ins are installed. In my case, the Adblock Plus extension accounts for around half the loading time of Firefox.

 

Hi Gary,

I'm using VSuite Ramdisk but it's only free on Windows XP. You will need to try some of the different ones to see what works well for you on Windows 7. If you enter the word ramdisk into Google, you will have no trouble finding them. Most are commercial paid software but there are free ones as well. You will also need to experiment with the size of the ramdisk itself to find the optimum size for your system.

Kind regards

 

My sandboxed Firefox takes about 6 seconds on cold starts, after that it gets faster when opening again. I hate delays when opening or closing sandboxes, that's one of the reasons why I don't run nothing along SBIE but there is software that works well along SBIE, as Chris said, its just a matter of finding what works fine with SBIE in a particular system.

Bo