sandbox

maranna · 03 Jun 2019

I get a warning that I have to sign in with my MS account. It says protection not complete. Also I cannot use favorites.
Is this typical of the sand box?

MikeMecanic · 05 Jun 2019

maranna said:

I get a warning that I have to sign in with my MS account. It says protection not complete. Also I cannot use favorites.
Is this typical of the sand box?

No its not normal, never seen such question in Sandbox with default parameters. See if disabling MS account in Services help (set to manual here). The same can be done in Group Policy Editor:

Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Polices > Security Options > Accounts: Block Microsoft accounts.

For the favorites, are you talking about favorites in Edge? As a side note, the easiest way to block advertisements in Sandbox is by getting << adguard.exe >>.

maranna · 05 Jun 2019

The sand box has changed since I opened it before, but thank you for the advice then.
It seems the only issue I have is with bookmarks/favorites.
Edge wanted to import a csv file which I tried from Chrome and to import from explorer where I have none. So how can I get bookmarks from Chrome?

thomaseg1 · 06 Jun 2019

In normal mode (outside of sandbox) open chrome or firefox, and export your bookmarks (favorites)
to File...You can copy and paste it into sandbox , or use wifi to go to your computer / share folder's
address and copy it that way.
Copy and paste easier and faster. For some reason my wifi in sandbox is 40% slower
when copying files then it is in browsing the web.
If want a bit faster way (and easier way ) to get 3rd party apps into sandbox there's always
Ninite.com If you download the installer you can copy and paste it into sandbox every time.

lx07 · 06 Jun 2019

thomaseg1 said:

If want a bit faster way (and easier way ) to get 3rd party apps into sandbox there's always
Ninite.com If you download the installer you can copy and paste it into sandbox every time.

You don't need to copy/paste. You can use the sandbox configuration files to map a drive and run startup programs automatically.

How to Configure the Windows Sandbox

Ztruker · 16 Jun 2019

Where is there a list/tutorial of available Sandbox options that can go in a profile? This should be something Microsoft has posted somewhere.

I got mapping a host drive to work following the directions at the link @lx07 posted.

I'd like to figure out how to customize the Desktop layout to make it more user friendly at start. I want This PC, Network and Control Panel icons on the desktop in the upper right corner and Recycle bin in the lower right corner (just the way I've always setup my systems). I can probably do this via a script a start. Has anyone done anything like that and if so, can they share the script they used?

lx07 · 17 Jun 2019

Ztruker said:

I can probably do this via a script a start. Has anyone done anything like that and if so, can they share the script they used?

Not exactly but I did a startup script to add French keyboard - you could change it to do whatever you want as long as you know a command to do it in Windows.

This is the .wsb file

Code:

<Configuration>
<MappedFolders>
   <MappedFolder>
     <HostFolder>C:\Users\Hali\OneDrive\Programs\SandboxScripts</HostFolder>
     <ReadOnly>true</ReadOnly>
   </MappedFolder>
</MappedFolders>
<LogonCommand>
   <Command>C:\Users\WDAGUtilityAccount\Desktop\SandboxScripts\localise.cmd</Command>
</LogonCommand>
</Configuration>

So when you use this .wsb to start sandbox it maps the SandboxScripts directory in my OneDrive which contains a file called localise.cmd.

The LogonCommand path (in orange) is the path in the sandbox - the shared folder gets put on the desktop of the sandbox user WDAGUtilityAccount. It therefore runs the script in the shared folder on my OneDrive.

This is localise.cmd - it is just a standard CMD file you can change to do anything.

Code:

REM Set keyboard
control intl.cpl,, /f:"C:\Users\WDAGUtilityAccount\Desktop\SandboxScripts\FrenchKeyboard.xml"

In this case it adds keyboard as defined in FrenchKeyboard.xml which is also stored in the OneDrive folder mapped to the sandbox.

Code:

<gs:GlobalizationServices xmlns:gs="urn:longhornGlobalizationUnattend">
    <!--User List--> 
    <gs:UserList>
        <gs:User UserID="Current"/>
    </gs:UserList>
    <!-- User Locale-->
    <gs:UserLocale>
        <gs:Locale Name="fr-FR" SetAsCurrent="true"/>
    </gs:UserLocale>
</gs:GlobalizationServices>

Note

The paths inside your localise.cmd (or whatever you defined it as) are relative to shared folder on the sandbox user desktop - not to the path on the host.

Ztruker · 17 Jun 2019

Thanks, I figured a lot of that out yesterday, see this thread: Sandbox

This is my Sandbox.wsb file

Code:

<Configuration>

<MappedFolders>
  <MappedFolder>
    <HostFolder>D:\temp</HostFolder>
    <ReadOnly>false</ReadOnly>
  </MappedFolder>
  <MappedFolder>
    <HostFolder>D:\tools</HostFolder>
    <ReadOnly>true</ReadOnly>
  </MappedFolder>
  <MappedFolder>
    <HostFolder>E:\sources</HostFolder>
    <ReadOnly>true</ReadOnly>
  </MappedFolder>
</MappedFolders>
<LogonCommand>
  <Command>C:\users\WDAGUtilityAccount\Desktop\temp\Sandbox\Sandbox_Logon_Batch.cmd</Command>
</LogonCommand>

</Configuration>

The Sandbox_Logon_Batch.cmd looks like this so far. Still timing problems.

Code:

Rem Place standard icons On Desktop Then arrange as usual

Rem First place icons On Desktop
reg import "C:\Users\WDAGUtilityAccount\Desktop\temp\Sandbox\StandardDesktopIcons.reg"

Rem Now use DesktopOK To order icons based On saved Host layout
cd "\Users\WDAGUtilityAccount\Desktop\tools"
DesktopOK_x64.exe /load DesktopOK.ini

The StandardDesktopIcons.reg looks like this:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; Enable standard This PC, Control Panel, User's Folder and Network Desktop icons

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel]
"{59031A47-3F72-44A7-89C5-5595fE6B30EE}"=dword:00000000
"{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}"=dword:00000000
"{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}"=dword:00000000
"{5399E694-6CE5-4D6C-8FCE-1D8870FDCBA0}"=dword:00000000

It sort of works

Fun to play with but just a toy so far. Having a R/W folder I can use to pass data back and forth through helps a lot (D:\temp). No Powershell is a severe limitation.

lx07 · 17 Jun 2019

Ztruker said:

No Powershell is a severe limitation.

Indeed. I don't remember the syntax for batch files any more really.

Ztruker said:

Fun to play with but just a toy so far.

It is fun. I thought it would be interesting to try to make sort of Guest account so everything a user does is destroyed on logout (like in macOS) but I haven't managed it yet. Every little thing is just so annoyingly long winded you may as well just make a normal VM and do checkpoint/rollback. We will see how it develops...

cereberus · 17 Jun 2019

lx07 said:

Indeed. I don't remember the syntax for batch files any more really.

It is fun. I thought it would be interesting to try to make sort of Guest account so everything a user does is destroyed on logout (like in macOS) but I haven't managed it yet. Every little thing is just so annoyingly long winded you may as well just make a normal VM and do checkpoint/rollback. We will see how it develops...

Yeah - until we have the ability to save a session and reboot to install things, Sandbox is really not much use.

As you say, you can simply use a vm and checkpoints etc.

Of course, there is always an outside risk viruses could escape from VM if you network vm to host or attach external drive etc. but risk is low if you avoid above. Naturally, good old host image backups before messing with a VM is always a good plan.

I actually wonder if anybody on Tenforums has ever found Sandbox to be really useful, or is everybody simply messing with it "because they can".