Hi Bruce,
I'm afraid I can't give you detailed answers to every program in this class
of virtualization
for several reasons:
1. Writing reviews or tutorials is generally the privilege extended to
moderators.
2. It would require an inordinate amount of my time to do so. Each one has
their own methods.
3. Many reviews have already been written on the programs in question or on
the ones not mentioned.
Just google the program + review and you'll find many opinions.
Beware that some can be very subjective and may not reflect the true
capabilities of the program,
whether positive or negative.
What I can do, is give you a general answer to your question.
The programs in this class will allow you to bookmark, save downloads and in
general, recover data that was "sandboxed".
However ,everything depends on your settings. These programs are tools and
as such you do have to learn
how to use them properly.
It is true that if not properly adjusted , all data acquired during a
"sandboxed" session will be lost on deletion,
if not recovered during the session or just prior to the deletion of the
sandbox.
Eg. With Sandboxie you can create several sandboxes ,each with their own
settings.
For general browsing sessions you may want to restrict access to your "real'
bookmarks, browsing history or cookies.
For sites that require a password that might be exploitable for malicious
purposes ,you may want to set up
another sandbox that does allow access to history and cookies.
Financial sites , like web banking, would preferably require a separate
sandbox with settings that allow more
access to "real" data and saving folders should be designated for automatic
saving to those folders
Updates to your browser or add-ons and plug-ins are generally best done
outside the sandbox.
But you could do them sandboxed to see if an update would cause problems.
Many programs other than the browser can be run sandboxed as well, so you
could try out new programs
and see if they work or how they work. If you don't like the program ,just
delete the sandbox.
This method avoids having to uninstall the program and possibly leave all
kinds of residue all over the place
including the registry.
One downside is that there is a slight penalty in browser speed, but having
a browser with lots of protective
add-ons does this as well. Using Phishing filters or Content Advisor , AVG's
Link Scanner or McAfee's Site Advisor
WOT and others , impose an immediate penalty on the speed of your browser.
These filters tend to grow to enormous sizes and are being scanned (compared
with) each time you go to a new link
or website.
Check out the program's website , help documents and forums to get an idea
of its capabilities.
Nothing is absolute safe or foolproof, but virtualization goes a long way to
let you operate in a safer environment.
Very often the main problem exists between keyboard and chair. PEBKAC.
This is only a very short impression of these tools.
The field of virtualization is quite extensive and more than can be covered
in here, but if you or another reader
wants to see a list of some of the more well known programs, either google
it or post on this list
with Subject : Virtualization and Protection and I'll try to post some
links.
Peter E
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Bruce Lund"
Sent: Friday, 20 May, 2011 10:26 AM
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [PCSOFT] Sandboxie, BufferZone et al
Peter,
Thanks for the links.
Would anybody like to share the downsides to programs like this? Inability
to bookmark? Erratic bookmark handling? Legitimate program downloads being
lost when sandbox is cleaned up? Etc., etc..
Bruce
Do you want to signoff PCSOFT or just change to
digest mode - visit our web site:
http://freepctech.com/pcbuild.shtml
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