Cmd.exe is available and works, as are most command-line programs and local Windows management consoles. You can copy files to and from the guest and host using Edit/Copy Edit/Paste and File Explorer. You can install other programs, although not all programs will load because of different issues. Windows Defender, the Microsoft anti-malware program, is not enabled and can’t be enabled, although you can install a third-party anti-malware program. Microsoft Office and applications are not loaded and can’t be easily loaded, because Office now requires that UAC be enabled. Your favorites and documents will not be there. Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer are there. The sandbox is a copy of your Windows image without any user modifications or added applications. You can create more users and groups and manipulate them like you normally would. The built-in local security groups are present. The built-in Administrator, Guest, and something called the DefaultAccount accounts are also created and disabled by default. There are lots of ways to check this, but the quickest is to kick off Task Manager, click on the Performance tab and look for the Virtualization option to be Enabled (see below). Make sure you have hardware virtualization enabled. If you want to use it you’ll need that version of (Professional or Enterprise editions) build 18305 (Insider builds)/1903 (Production builds) or newer, a 64-bit processor, and your hardware virtualization functionality enabled in your BIOS/EFI boot configuration, plus the normal memory and storage requirements. Microsoft released the new Windows Sandbox feature in December 2018 with Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise Insider build 18305 ( ). Post add-in (), I really like the Windows 10 Sandbox and recommend it as long as you are aware of its limitations.

Unlike my recent review of the Outlook Mr. Bottom-line: Great, lightweight virtual machine for quickly testing suspicious emails, links, and files on Windows 10, but very little versatility and without features common to most VMs.Īfter attending my latest webinar on forensically examining phishing (), some attendees recommended I take a look at Windows 10 Sandbox, a new lightweight virtual machine (VM) created by Microsoft for quickly testing potentially rogue content.

Windows defender sandbox