Is there a way to presist data on Windows sandbox?

altae said:

Use the program Sandboxie (which is now open source by the way). It let's you configure in detail what data is retained when you close the sandbox.

Problems on some machines with that particular piece of software --if you can get it to work --fine but don't "bet the farm on it" - especially with latest Windows builds.

cheers
jimbo

The latest developer Windows 11 build has a version of Sandbox which allows a restart and the data to persist.
We can finally test out the numerous software that requires a restart before it would work.
Well done to the Windows Sandbox team!

“Windows Sandbox now supports reboot inside of its virtualized environment (for example, if you were to click the Restart option under the Power button in Start).”

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22509 | Windows Insider Blog

cereberus said:

I know this is an old post but the above is not actually true. Sandbox is basically a stripped down enterprise build and runs unactivated. You could not activate it if you tried. There would be no point in activating a virtual machine if it was used just to run Sandbox.

Hi there
as it's so easy to create "Real" instances of Windows now as vhdx files (which are activated via digital license too) - and can also run totally from external HDD's / SSD's I find if I want test beds I simply create a new vhdx instance and run that .

absolutely IMO no point any more in even thinking about the Sandbox if you can use multiple Windows instances with vhdx files/ These are persistent too and perform infinitely better than any sandbox. The disadvantage of a dual boot is well worth it for the convenience and performance -- with the vhdx system the Windows instances are separate so they do not interfere with each other.

Sometimes testing on real hardware is needed - VM's are fine as well if you don't need to test using the real hardware of course - but a disadvantage is that the VM's need a separate license !!!! especially if you run them concurrently. The vhdx physical windows instances of course can only be run singly (unless from inside a HYPER-V machine).

To the running Windows system the vhdx file from which its running is the "C" drive. The "Data drive" (the boot drive which has the single bootable EFI system partition appears as drive "D" (assuming running from a single internal hdd / ssd) with a number of single .vhdx files on it which are the various Windows installations (or even Windows server if you have that) so these can be copied / backed up. Since W10 Ms has made this system of booting from vhdx files so much easier and flexible I'm amazed more people don't use this method when running different instances of Windows.

Note also that WSL2 if you use that also creates its Linux distro on a vhdx file so you don't even need a separate Linux partition if the WSL works sufficiently for you. It;s getting better per release especially now you can install your own distro and it's also getting easier to run GUI appls too on WSL2.


Cheers
jimbo

cereberus said:

I am sorry but you are oversimplifying things. Native boot of VHDX files is not as secure as using a VM, as they have direct access to the bcd, and other host operating systems. With a vm, you can ring fence what host drives it has access to. I allow access to a data drive but never my host OS drive. Even that introduces an element of risk but much smaller.

in simple terms, only use native boot VHDXs when you are sure security is not an issue as you remove the ring fencing benefits of a VM.

Hi there
agreed that VM is more secure - but I was particularly emphasising using vhdx files as opposed to working with the Windows sandbox.

Physical vhdx's are reasonably secure though in "standard" usage. sometimes too one needs to test real hardware so VM's aren't always the answer.

Cheers
jimbo

My use case is 1. Running multiple versions of the same software. 2. Running many different applications many of which conflict with one another. I need to run so many different applications in becomes impractical to run a VM for each. Over the years, I've used different custom Windows versions to keep VM sizes/resources small. Full windows 10 versions are not only huge but require all the maintenance and updates, which you can't get around with a snapshot feature. Window LTSC builds generally give me the a compromise of size and maintenance requirements while being fully compatible, but I've also went to the extreme of using 3rd part 'Lite' builds.

I feel like Windows should offer a 'Install in Sandbox' feature. Microsoft already provides MSIX and older repackaging tools, though, I haven't had much luck with MSIX packager. They even provide a VM with the packager ready to use. It does make a containerized Windows App but it's not easy and even after learning it, some software just doesn't work. Sandboxie also just didn't work as I had hoped.

I've also tried VMWare ThinApp to make 'portable' apps. There are some more app virtualization utilities out there and there is a whole bunch of 'portable' apps, both legit and pirated but it takes some work to make these correctly.

Does anyone have virtualization app utility recommendations? I thought this would be discussed in the Virtualization forum but mostly it's just VM discussion.

Most portable apps work great in Windows PE ;-) just ask Sergei Strelec