From ExtremeTech: The internet is full of wonder and the accumulated knowledge of humanity, but it’s also full of malicious software and scams. That’s why Windows users have always been warned not to launch shady executables. You’re not going to open virus.exe, but sometimes it’s not so clear. Windows will soon have a tool to help you find out what that questionable EXE file does. It’s called Windows Sandbox, and it’s coming next year to select versions of the OS.
Some more knowledgeable Windows users have long used virtual machines to test suspicious files, but that requires a lot of setup and forethought. Windows Sandbox is like a streamlined virtual machine, and it’s built into Windows 10. Or rather, it will be in a few months.
To run Windows Sandbox, your PC will need to be on Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise (build 18305 or later) with a 64-bit dual-core CPU, at least 4GB of RAM, and 1GB of disk space. However, Microsoft recommends a quad-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an SSD. You also need virtualization enabled at the BIOS level.
With those boxes checked, the machine will be able to create a small 100MB Windows 10 installation that is completely isolated from your real operating system via Microsoft’s Hypervisor to run a separate kernel. This is a “hybrid” approach that doesn’t need a full OS image like a regular virtual machine. Instead, it uses the files of the host OS to dynamically generate pristine files each time you open the Sandbox.
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