Sandboxie 5.45.0

Sandboxie is an open-source sandboxing program for Microsoft Windows. Sandboxie creates an isolated operating environment in which applications can be run or installed without permanently modifying the local system. This virtual environment allows for controlled testing of untrusted programs and web surfing. After various ownership transitions, Sophos eventually stated they would no longer be involved in the development of Sandboxie and that the open-source community would have to continue development instead.

Sandboxie is a sandbox-based isolation software for 32- and 64-bit Windows NT-based operating systems. It creates a sandbox-like isolated operating environment in which applications can be run or installed without permanently modifying the local or mapped drive. An isolated virtual environment allows controlled testing of untrusted programs and web surfing.

Sandboxie was initially released in 2004 as a tool for sandboxing Internet Explorer. Over time, the program was expanded to support other browsers and arbitrary Win32 applications.

In December 2013, Invincea announced the acquisition of Sandboxie. The original developer Ronen Tzur further announced he would no longer be involved with the program.

In February 2017, Sophos announced the acquisition of Invincea. Invincea posted an assurance in Sandboxie's website that for the time being Sandboxie's development and support would continue as normal.

Windows XP SP3 was supported up to version 5.22, after which support for XP was dropped. In September 2019, Sandboxie version 5.31.4 was released under a freeware license "with plans to transition it to an open source tool". The previous commercial license still applied to customers with active licenses until their license expired.

In April 2020, Sophos released the source code (as source code-only version 5.40) under the GPLv3 license. Sophos stated that they would no longer be involved in the development of Sandboxie and that the open-source community would have to continue development instead.

As of February 2021, the www.sandboxie.com page states "Sandboxie Plus is the leading development initiative taking Sandboxie forward in the open source community"

In April 2019, the official site was shut down, preventing downloads, installations and purchases, which prompted the creation of a temporary forum in the company's own domain.

In May 2019, the official site returned with the original forums permanently shut down in favor of Sophos' own forums., which were later shut down as well. Between May and September 2019 (when Sandboxie became freeware), the purchase options were still missing.

In response to the announcement of the closure of the Sandboxie website, software developer David Berdik scraped the site's contents and published the archive on GitHub on May 10, 2020.

As of version 4.02, Sandboxie has full support for 64-bit versions of Windows with the exception of Windows XP 64-bit which was never supported.