Sandboxie's Source Code has been released

[harlan4096]

Sophos, the company that acquired the Sandboxie sandboxing software and technology from Invincea in 2017, has released the source code of the application to the public.

Sandboxie, which was created by Ronan Tzur, was first released as a tool to sandbox Microsoft's Internet Explorer back in 2004. The program's functionality was expanded over the years so that Windows users could use it to sandbox all Windows applications.

Sophos turned Sandboxie into a freeware application in 2019 and promised that it would release the source code of the application later. The time has come and Sandboxie's code is now available for download. Interested users may download it from the official website here.

Tip: How to use Sandboxie for browsing, downloading and installing programs

Sophos published a FAQ that answers some of the questions that existing and new users of Sandboxie may have. The company notes that it in communication with "members of the community" to make Sandboxie available "through an open source project to the community".

he latest version of Sandboxie that Sophos has created is Sandboxie 5.33.3 for Windows 7, 8.1, and 10. All features reserved for commercial versions of Sandboxie have been made available in that release; in other words, Sandboxie has been turned into a freeware. The source code version is 5.40 according to the filename.

Updates, e.g. bug fixes or improvements, need to be made through the community or other parties that use the code to continue development. Sophos plans to shut down the license server on June 1st, 2020 and the Sandboxie community forum on the same day.

The company will keep the website open at that time but has plans to close the website (and thus the official download of Sandboxie) in Fall 2020. By then, it is necessary that the community has taken over the project (on a different site).

Instructions on compiling the source are provided. Sophos notes that Sandboxie's driver needs to be signed and that Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 is required to compile the code.

Closing Words

I'd would be great if community members would create a development team to maintain Sandboxie and release new versions of the sandboxing software.

Now You: What is your take on the development?
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