Portable version and old installation on same system?

[GreenElephant]

Hello.
If Ill try to run current portable version on the same system that has very old version(1.0.1.10) of Sandboxie Plus installed, will it cause any issues? For example will portable version delete the driver/service old installation using or something like that?


The problem Im trying to solve is that no browser would start with old version and I suddenly require sandboxed browser. But at the same time Im a bit reluctant to update to new version, since old one runs perfect for the tasks Im using it and Im worried that updating might break something.

 

[bastik-1001]

Hello,

you might run into issues, since Sandboxie(-Plus) will search for the Sandboxie.ini in C:\Windows and then its own installation folder (in that order) and use whatever Sandboxie.ini is found first.

If Sandboxie-Plus is run in portable mode, it is supposed to uninstall the driver, when it exits.

You could rename the Sandboxie.ini in C:\Windows, to avoid that its settings will be used, unless you want to test if the new version works as expected with the sandbox(es) you used before. Be aware, that the new portable version would still modify the old Sandboxie.ini, if it was started with that.

Sandboxie-Plus has a maintenance menu (Sandbox > Maintenance) to uninstall the driver or to install the driver, so you should be able to go back to the old installation. I don't know if Windows itself is happy with downgrading the driver, but since the driver is being uninstalled and as far as I know, Windows does not track driver versions.

Both versions can't be run at the same time, only one driver can be loaded.

Browsers changed how they apply their own sandboxes and Sandboxie has adapted to it, with several updates. Besides compatibility changes, Sandboxie had some flaws fixed that affect security concerns.

 

[GreenElephant]

Thank you! That was very helpful. I wouldnt have guessed myself what maintenance section do, since "advanced" which containes driver options is greyed out until you press "disconnect"

Everything worked out eventually, but I've encountered an issue which I solved. I will describe it in case somebody else end up in my situation:

Spoiler: Making portable work

After starting portable version it used sanboxie.ini from C:\Windows.
Browsers still wouldnt start. Neither in existing sandboxes, nor in newly created.
I deleted driver and service via Sandbox > Maintenance (I dont remember if I did it via old ver or portable)
Then I installed driver and service via portable ver
Afterwards portable version automatically created sandboxie.ini in its folder and started using it instead of one in C:\Windows
Created new sandbox and browsers were running fine there

Reverting everything by deleting driver and service via new ver, then installing them back via old ver seems to work without issues. I also restored backed up sandboxie.ini in C:\Windows

And one more question:
Sandboxes which used "Security Hardened Sandbox" preset (with orange icon), became yellow in new ver and that present is not accesible anymore in free version. Am I understanding correctly that this is a "cosmetic" change, since "Security Hardened Sandbox" have a different definiton in new version and old sandboxes created with preset would work fine maintaining all the settings they were created with?

 

[bastik-1001]

Thank you for explaining what you did. It should prove helpful to others in a similar situation.

And one more question:
Sandboxes which used "Security Hardened Sandbox" preset (with orange icon), became yellow in new ver and that present is not accesible anymore in free version. Am I understanding correctly that this is a "cosmetic" change, since "Security Hardened Sandbox" have a different definiton in new version and old sandboxes created with preset would work fine maintaining all the settings they were created with?

Yes, that is correct. A bit of history behind it. The closed sourced software Sandboxie changed ownership, before Sophos decided to give up on its development and release the sources. David made a fork of those sources, and maintains Sandboxie Classic and Sandboxie Plus, which are the same core components for the sandboxing part with different user interfaces. The old interface is no longer extended, while the new interface exposes much more settings via graphical menus. Sandboxie Plus adds more convenience. Every feature that was included in the sources, which includes features that previously had to be paid for, is freely available in Sandboxie Classic and Sandboxie Plus.

David added features (and adds features to it) which are freely available in Sandboxie Classic and Sandboxie Plus. He also added features, where he asks for money for them to be available. No previous feature has been diminished to drive someone to spend money.

The "Security Hardened Sandbox" used to mean, software in that type of sandbox cant run with administrative privileges. Sandboxie stripped down the access token of processes under its control and running software elevated posses a greater risk for something malicious. A sandbox set up as "Security Hardened Sandbox" before the change will be the same as before. The feature can be enabled or disabled. The feature can be used for any sandbox. The appearance and the label "Security Hardened Sandbox" have been repurposed to mean something that goes beyond what it used to mean. Administrative privileges are still dropped, but additionally Sandboxie restricts available syscalls and access to devices and drivers, believed to be safe or required for general purpose software.