Wait a bit on the format and give DL time to get back - he didnt install BZ, maybe we'll get lucky

No problem! I don't want to reformat my disc only for such a little problem. And I stay tuned right here.

Ok while we are waiting - humor me, switch back and forth from Classic StartMenu and XP startmenu - stop and restart explorer.exe with the task manager (you can stay online with that) - heck I'm even ready to TweakUi the icon cache - lol

Well, not good news. Mitch, it doesn't matter how you terminate explorer.exe via task manager or Sandboxie control. The result is the same. I uninstalled VM Ware, no luck. I also disabled 'Data Execution Prevention', again no luck. Finally, I ran a debug trace. The only odd line I got was:

watchdog!WdUpdateRecoveryState: Recovery enabled.

The rest of the trace was normal. I googled variants of the trace line but got no results, so I don't know what it means. It does, however, look like something is trying to look after my system maybe?

Anyway, I've got a new system coming in next week, so I'll probably wait to see if the problem reoccurs after I set it up. I'm out of ideas. Like r0lZ says, it's not serious enough to warrant drastic measures at this point. If anyone can think of something short of a reformat I will be glad to try it out.

Ok, It seems we have an extremely similair problem that will end up with very differant solutions. Thanx for trying

I didn't thought at that, but still no changes. I have already rebuilt the icon cache with Dial-A-Fix!

BTW, I think an important thing that is missing in SB (but present in BZ) is a tool to create shortcuts to launch files sandboxed. The tool should live in the context menu of all files, and when activated, it should request the sandbox name (only if there are several sandboxes of course) and the location for the shortcut (by default in the regular start menu.) Then, the user will be able to launch any sandboxed programs from the windows start menu, without having to use those launchers, which are, IMO, the sharp edges of Sandboxie. That can already be done manually, but it's not handy.

@dlguild: thanks for having tried!

Hey, you might have something there - think it through and put it in Feature Request - Sandboxie is the best program that I have ever had on this comp - It's now in a stage where it is trying to fit in with all of the misfit programs of the world. Sandboxie in its' pure form is bug/error free with windows in it's pure form. All of this is from the rest of them.

Yes it would be a nice feature. I assume you know already that you can automatically force a program into the sandbox, no matter how it is launched by putting the executable name into the sandbox configuration using the Sandboxie GUI?

Also, you can set up a shortcut which you can place anywhere you like which is structured like this:

"c:\program files\sandboxie\start.exe" "<path to executable>/<executable.exe>", which will auto start the program in the default box. Or this variant:

"c:\program files\sandboxie\start.exe" box:/<sandbox name> "<path to executable>/<executable.exe>", which will start it in the desired sanbox automatically.

Doesn't sound as easy as BZ, but you only have to set up the shortcuts the first time.

OK. I might even write a script to do just that myself, and post it as a prototype. I have also several other ideas, such as a tool to add automatically shortcuts for programs that have been installed in a sandbox.
Will come back later with those ideas.

In the meantime, I have reinstalled v3.01, and... explorer works!
I ran "Run Sandboxed>Any Program" and typed . (dot) and, surprise!, explorer was there, correctly sandboxed. Now, "Run Sandboxed>Windows Explorer" works also. However, the start menu still doesn't work.

I will try v3.01.18 again, but tomorrow. It is late, here in Belgium...

Thats great - maybe the last fix by switching back to the old user profile.

Yes, I use it already to launch Skype. But it is sometimes necessary to be able to launch the same program either snadboxed or not. Shortcuts are handy for that.

It's exactly what I want to automate.

Note that BZ creates a shortcut (with a .virtual extension) for all files that it keeps in its (censored) (its name for its boxes.) Accessing the shortcut has exactly the same effect than accessing the normal file, except that the application that uses it runs in the (censored) protected area. Furthermore, the icons of all virtual files and shortcuts have a red outline, and it is easy to know what you launch. The right-click menu of those shortcuts has also an option to move the file out of the box, thus replacing the shortcut by the regular file, unboxed. Handy. The BZ interface is really more sexy than SB's one, but the rest is not as good, and only one sandbox is currently available.

[FIX] You wrote "box:/<sandbox name>". It's /box:<sandbox name>

Well, I have re-installed v3.01.18, and explorer doesn't work again. So, it's really a bug in the latest betas.

Is it possible to download the other beta versions somewhere? I would like to check which is the latest beta that worked fine...

r0lZ, it was a great suggestion! I have all the 2.x series betas and a couple of the 3.x release versions. I installed v2.94.25, problem fixed. Upgraded to v3.00.17.0, problem fixed. Upgraded to v3.1.0.0 (release 3.01), problem fixed. Upgraded to 3.01.18 (latest), problem RETURNED.

So something changed between installer version v3.1.0.0 (3.01) and 3.01.18 which broke 'Run Sandboxed', 'Windows Explorer'.

Unfortunately, since 2.x Beta testing ended I have not kept all the 3.x releases, but this at least narrows the window. I don't think the old versions are available for download.

I think it's more than that. I found another bug in 3.01.18 that I'm gonna start a new thread. In FF when I download a file and choose to save it, the click the 'My Computer' button in the left sidebar, FF crashes.

I changed back to 3.01 and it works fine.

Hmm, i get something very similar, for me, Run Sandboxed -> Windows Explorer, does work, but, it starts up soooo slow, it took about a minute and a half for explorer to finally open. So although i dont get the same problem, it seems that there is infact something that broke in 3.01.18, btw i assume you guys are still on xp, well i tried this on vista, so maybe thats the difference (which is maybe why i was able to get explorer to finally open sandboxed) Also though, i am able to get the sandboxie start menu to open up fine. Btw guys, dont forget, 3.01.18 isnt necessarily the stable version, 3.01 is still the newest stable version, so 3.01.18 can be thought of sorta as a beta i guess.