Posted on 12/22/2018 6:20:04 AM PST by AF_Blue
Whether its a program you found on the Internet or something that came in your email, running executable files has always been risky. Testing software in clean systems requires virtual machine (VM) software and a separate Windows license to run inside the VM. Microsoft is about to solve that problem with Windows Sandbox.
(Excerpt) Read more at howtogeek.com ...
Since the vast majority of executables are actually people downloading illegal content, the “sandbox” is also like a “honey trap”, in which Microsoft is attempting to find out what illegal content the user is downloading, so they can go to the source and shut it down with DCMA or other methods. In addition, they can also provide an audit trail to nail the Windows user for such activity as well.
Haven’t tried it yet but, like the low overhead and original state on exit features.
I played with Edge a bit on a laptop I don’t use except to try out Win10. It isn’t bad, if you don’t care about the built in spyware and lack of blockers.
Edge is going away. Microsoft is working on a Chromium-based replacement for it that will be compatible with all Google Chrome add-ons.
You have a point and I definitely would not completely discount your suspicions. But I am doubtful that a “vast majority of executables” are from illegal content, so I believe that your theory is built on a false premise. I am also doubtful that this is Microsoft's primary intent. Microsoft is a huge entity where one hand typically does not know what the other hand is doing. The leadership often appears to have only loose control over the finer details of a lot of their operations. In that regards it is not that much different from a government entity in many cases.
I will continue to use various virtual machines, but this does sound like a very convenient feature, “honey pot” or not.
The primary purpose of the latest major Windows Update that is still being rolled out is to push for phone and tablet integration with Edge being front and center. Edge does not seem to be going anywhere for awhile.
No word on whether there will be a name change, but MS is definitely moving to the Chromium based rendering enging.
bbb
A VM is quite easy to install and set up, IMHO... Still using two (not simultaneously) on an XP machine, one on my 8.1 laptop, and one on my wife's Windows 10 desktop...
However, she is 80-years old now and VMs are too confusing for her these days...
Thanks to AF_Blue for the ping!
another interesting and simple one to use is:
To sandbox an application, all you have to do is drag and drop it into the Shade Sandbox window. The next time you launch the application, it will be automatically sandboxed.
https://www.maketecheasier.com/best-sandbox-applications-windows10/
well the object is to be able to test software in a safe environment, or open emails that look sketchy, or whatever, and not worry about it as the system is in a sandbox environment which is discarded- you don’t make changes to your actual operating system when you test in a sandbox enviro-
Yeah that is why I use a duel boot system
But it's easy to see why M$ is having such a rough patch. First, they haven't created an OS that people lined up at stores to buy since 2001. Second, they totally missed the boat on the handheld digital devices revolution. And third, sales of the one market segment they dominate -- desktop PCs -- has been in steady decline since 2012.
And their future ain't looking that rosy neither. Because of the dominance of Android and iOS, about 80% of kids in industrialized nations are growing up with a Linux-based OS strapped to their hip from when they get out of bed in the morning until they go to bed at night. It'll be interesting to see how that pans out once they grow up and become the Status Quo.
There is no Windows 11 and probably never will be. Anything you're seeing labeled such either is a hack job by an enterprising developer ...or a con job.
Nobody who knows is saying what Win10's successor will be called. It might not even be called "Windows anything" but it won't be called Win11. Best guess is it will be just plain Windows, with no number. And it will be a service, and as with all services, you have to pay to continue receiving it. In other words, you won't buy it, you'll rent it, and have to keep paying for it for so long as you use it.
Strange I thought they were supposed to have this feature YEARS ago.
The safe sandbox idea isnt rocket science to implement
but I guess this is more ‘microsoft’ ineptness (and NO Im not some Unix guy, just someone who microsoft has disappointed for decades)
I have old files created in early versions of WordPerfect that I like to access. You mentioned Sandbox is useful for running legacy programs. Is there any benefit to using it over the general OS, with which I can run later versions of WordPerfect?
Not to say you can't do it, just that it's not necessary in this case.
A VM is preferable for that. I have some legacy software that won’t run on Win-7 or Win-10 so I run it on a VM that is set up as a Win-98 machine.
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