Sandboxie Plus 1.17.6 / Classic 5.72.6

Sandboxie offers secure sandboxing for Windows apps, preventing permanent system changes and adding enhanced features in the modern Plus interface.

Razvan Serea News Reporter Neowin · May 18, 2026 07:10 EDT with 0 comments

Sandboxie

Run programs in a sandbox to prevent malware from making permanent changes to your PC. Sandboxie allows you to run your browser, or any other program, so that all changes that result from the usage are kept in a sandbox environment, which can then be deleted later.

Sandboxie is a sandbox-based isolation software for 32- and 64-bit Windows NT-based operating systems. It is being developed by David Xanatos since it became open source, before that it was developed by Sophos (which acquired it from Invincea, which acquired it earlier from the original author Ronen Tzur). It creates a sandbox-like isolated operating environment in which applications can be run or installed without permanently modifying the local or mapped drive. An isolated virtual environment allows controlled testing of untrusted programs and web surfing.

Sandboxie is available in two flavors Plus and Classic. Both have the same core components, this means they have the same level of security and compatibility. What's different is the user interface the Plus build has a modern Qt based UI which supports all new features that have been added since the project went open source. The Classic build has the old no longer developed MFC based UI, hence it lacks support for modern features, these features can however still be used when manually configured in the Sandboxie.ini.

Sandboxie Plus 1.17.6 / Classic 5.72.6 release notes:

Sandboxie-Plus version 1.17.6 / 5.72.6 introduces a number of usability improvements, compatibility fixes, and refinements to box portability and management. The main application window will now clearly indicate when Sandboxie-Plus is running with elevated privileges by appending “(Administrator)” to the window title, helping users more easily distinguish between elevated and non-elevated sessions.
This release further improves the sandbox import and export workflow. The archive format has been revised to store sandbox configurations directly as BoxName.ini files using a [BoxName] section header, replacing the previous BoxName/BoxConfig.ini layout. The new format remains fully backward compatible, with imports supporting both the legacy and updated structures. In addition, the updated format is now fully aligned with the portable sandbox layout, allowing users to simply unpack an exported archive and immediately add the contained sandboxes as portable boxes without any additional conversion steps.
Several issues have also been addressed in this build. A problem affecting hook registration has been fixed, improving overall reliability and compatibility.
Another important fix resolves excessive CPU usage caused by Desktop Window Manager (DWM) when running applications that use custom title bars, such as applications built with Delphi VCL, significantly reducing unnecessary system load in affected scenarios.