I've been using Sandboxie for a while and I am extremely happy with its performance although I just recently become aware of these Windows files occasionally running in the Sandbox and I was wondering if this was normal and what purpose they have...



There are a total of 37.9 MB of Windows files...

...

Composed of INF and System 32 files...



I'm just curious why Sandboxie needs these files and I'm hoping that some of the more experienced users could help me understand the presence of these Windows files in the Sandbox.

~Maxx~

It's normal.

Regarding the files at the top of the sandbox: You may be aware that Windows maintains configuration for system and applications in something called the Windows registry. The RegHive files make up the registry for the sandbox.

Regarding the files in Windows and Program Files: It's not that Sandboxie itself needs those files, they are touched by programs that Sandboxie runs, and Sandboxie has to make copies in the sandbox.

That is quite a bit, what is in those folders?

tzuk- Thank you so very much for answering my questions about these files in Sandboxie. I recommend Sandboxie regularly and though some people are reluctant to start using Sandboxie because it sounds complicated to them at first I assure them that Sandboxie has a great Forum to seek help from and a program creator that is genuinely proactive and actively responds when Sandboxie users seek help.

~Maxx~

Mitch- Most of them were INF System 32 files. Here is a screenshot of the top of the INF System 32 file that I was able to copy...



Although right now for some unknown reason Sandboxie has copied 30 MB of Thumbsdb into it...





~Maxx~

37 mb of inf files in the sandbox is strange. Any idea what you may have done to have them copied into the sandbox? How many total inf files are there in the sandboxed Windows\Inf folder?

That is because you have Thumbnail view enabled for your folders. Rightclick on an empty area inside the folder >View >List

Or on your toolbar where it says 'Views' click 'List'

That explains 30 mb of it

In XP in Folder Options you can "Apply to all folders" the view setting you prefer - should be similar in Vista. Then those thumbs can just be deleted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_thumbnail_cache

I think that I may have figured out why Sandboxie had copied the Thumbsdb files into the Sandbox. I am a photographer and I post hundreds of photos online using Photobucket and when I select photos to upload from my computer Sandboxie needs the Thumbsdb to display the thumbnails. As an example I haven't posted any pictures today and currently Sandboxie is only taking up 2.45 MB of disc space, but as soon as I went to Photobucket to look at some prospective pictures to upload Sandboxie immediately copied 57 MB of INF and Windows files into the Sandbox and it also created an empty file folder with the drive letter where the pictures I was going through were stored. This isn't a problem because I have the Sandbox delete invocation and command set to have Eraserl overwrite the contents with 7 passes of the Schneier algorithm as soon as the browser closes.

I'm finding that the closer attention I pay to what is going on in the Sandbox as I perform different tasks the more sense it makes.

~Maxx~

Nice pic. You might want to set your thumbnail cache files to ReadFilePath, so that Sandboxie doesn't bother copying them into the sandbox. (They're just getting deleted afterward anyway.)

You can use a local template like this:

If you do want the thumnail cache updated outside the sandbox, you can substitute OpenFilePath for ReadFilePath above.

EDIT: Changed "Comment" to "Tmpl.Comment" per Guest10's suggestion.

Thanks for the very useful tip Mike!

~Maxx~

Technically, that's:
although it might work just as well, as is.

You're right, thanks. It seems to work fine, but I've updated my post above.