While that’s better than nothing, you may not have the benefit of behavioural analysis and other features that your primary antivirus software provides to help protect against zero-day attacks.įor example, if you receive a file via email and are unsure that it’s safe, you can use Windows Sandbox to test it. Instead, you’re relying on Windows Defender to protect you from malware. It is important to note that your main antivirus software doesn’t run inside Windows Sandbox. Windows Sandbox has limited malware protection For example, if you were to execute malware containing a worm virus inside the sandbox, it can still scan your network for vulnerable systems and spread to other systems from there. So while malware executed within the sandbox cannot directly access the C: drive of the primary operating system, it can still communicate with other devices on your network. However, it is important to note that Windows Sandbox doesn’t provide network-level isolation. Just shut down Windows Sandbox and the Ransomware and its changes are gone and forgotten. For example, if you were to run a piece of Ransomware inside the sandbox, it would probably begin to encrypt files inside the sandbox, leaving your primary operating system safe. When it comes to untrusted software Windows Sandbox can provide some security. This is great if you need to test some legitimate software, but are concerned about compatibility with other applications or it breaking your system in some other way. Windows Sandbox runs as a virtual machine and it’s contents are destroyed when you shut it down. Windows Sandbox is not completely isolated

If you’re planning to use Windows Sandbox you should be aware of what protections it can and cannot provide. My main concern with Microsoft’s statement is that it’s a little misleading and Windows Sandbox users may be putting their networks at risk. Just Google “Windows Sandbox” and you’ll find plenty of articles that describe how to install and use it.

In their article, Microsoft describes Windows Sandbox as an “Isolated desktop environment where you can run untrusted software without the fear of lasting impact to your device”. However, the new feature I want to talk about it the Windows Sandbox, a quasi-virtual environment for securely testing unknown software. Version 1903 introduces several new features and enhancements, such as Start Menu improvements, a new Light theme, finer control over update deployment and many more (see this Microsoft article for details). You can check your Windows Update settings for availability. The update will be rolled out in stages, so it may not be available to you yet. Microsoft has just released the next major update to Windows 10, which brings us up from version 1809 to 1903.

Sandboxie keylogger