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Windows tip of the week

Use Windows Sandbox to test programs without compromising security

By Ed Bott

How do you put an unknown program through its paces without risking the integrity and security of your programs and data? If you've set up a virtual machine in Hyper-V, you can use that environment and then roll back using checkpoints.

But beginning with Windows 10 version 1903, there's a much easier way. A new feature called Windows Sandbox uses that same Hyper-V infrastructure to create an instant virtual machine that you can use for short-term testing. It's completely isolated from your host operating system, and when you close the Sandbox, it discards every change.

To use Windows Sandbox, you must be running Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise. Open the Windows Features dialog box, select the Windows Sandbox check box, click OK, and then restart. Click the Windows Sandbox shortcut on the Start menu to open the app. Use the Clipboard to copy any file to the test environment, where you can experiment without fear.

For most testing, the default Sandbox configuration is good enough. But if you would prefer to tweak those configurations, you can so do by editing and saving XML files. Follow the instructions in this article to manage those files: Windows Sandbox - Config Files.

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