114 PCWorld JULY 2019HERE’S HOW WINDOWS SANDBOX
Remember, you can close down
Windows Sandbox at any time. When you
do, you’ll receive a message that whatever is
stored within it is gone for good. The
protections Sandbox offers go away if you
copy a hazardous file from within the virtual
machine out to your main Windows
installation, of course.ADAPTING WINDOWS
SANDBOX FOR EVERYDAY
USE
What you may quickly realize, however, is
that Sandbox is more than just a testbed for
apps you’re not sure about. It’s also a bonus
layer of security when you’re poking about
the web. We liked Windows 10’s hidden
secure browser, Windows Device
Application Guard (go.pcworld.com/wndg),
but it allowed you to download files only to
its own secure
environment. With
Sandbox, you can
copy files between
Sandbox to
your PC.
Both Microsoft
Edge and Google
Chrome include
their own
sandboxing
elements to protect
your PC. But if you
really don’t trust aparticular site, you can always open Edge
within your Sandbox (creating a sort of
“sandbox within a Sandbox”) and open that
untrusted site. Are you a bit skeptical that
Chrome’s Incognito mode doesn’t track
your browsing? Download Chrome within
Sandbox, surf away without logging into
your Google account, then destroy your
whole session by closing Sandbox.
Windows Sandbox doesn’t anonymize
your viewing—your Internet provider will
still theoretically have a record of what sites
you’ve visited, unless you also use a VPN—
but when you destroy the Sandbox, that
browsing record totally disappears. And if
you download something you’re not sure
about, you can always test it within
Sandbox to help determine whether it’s
actually malicious.
Oddly, Windows Defender doesn’t seemBitTorrent worked just fine. You never know what exactly you’re downloading,
though, which is why Sandbox might be a good idea.