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Windows Sandbox (please see the link below for full details)

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Windows-Kernel-Internals/Windows-Sandbox/ba-p/301849

Windows Sandbox is a new lightweight desktop environment tailored for safely running applications in isolation.

 

How many times have you downloaded an executable file, but were afraid to run it? Have you ever been in a situation which required a clean installation of Windows, but didn’t want to set up a virtual machine?

 

At Microsoft we regularly encounter these situations, so we developed Windows Sandbox: an isolated, temporary, desktop environment where you can run untrusted software without the fear of lasting impact to your PC. Any software installed in Windows Sandbox stays only in the sandbox and cannot affect your host. Once Windows Sandbox is closed, all the software with all its files and state are permanently deleted.

 

Windows Sandbox has the following properties:

  • Part of Windows – everything required for this feature ships with Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise. No need to download a VHD!
  • Pristine – every time Windows Sandbox runs, it’s as clean as a brand-new installation of Windows
  • Disposable – nothing persists on the device; everything is discarded after you close the application
  • Secure – uses hardware-based virtualization for kernel isolation, which relies on Microsoft’s hypervisor to run a separate kernel which isolates Windows Sandbox from the host
  • Efficient – uses integrated kernel scheduler, smart memory management, and virtual GPU

 

Prerequisites for using the feature

  • Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise build 18305 or later
  • AMD64 architecture
  • Virtualization capabilities enabled in BIOS
  • At least 4GB of RAM (8GB recommended)
  • At least 1 GB of free disk space (SSD recommended)
  • At least 2 CPU cores (4 cores with hyperthreading recommended)

 

 

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It makes sense.  You can make multiple virtual 32bit systems under a 64bit OS and you can make multiple virtual 16bit systems under a 32bit OS .

Then there is that 232 - 1  ( or ~ 232 [ 4,294,967,296] ) maximum byte allocation limit.

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1 hour ago, Firefox said:

Dang I had not seen your post and posted about it in General section too... feel free to delete the duplicate if you like along with this reply...

 

All good. Little more exposure might be good for some.

Really wish Microsoft would not have cut off the Windows 10 Home user version. A lot of home version where this could be helpful too at times.

 

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Windows 10 32bit still has NTVDM but its now an option.

NTVDM is under "Legacy Components" within the  "Turn Windows Features On or Off" in the Control Panel applet "Programs and Features".

16-bit-E.jpg

Then In a Administrator level Command Prompt execute;   FONDUE   /enable-feature:NTVDM

EDIT:

Reference:
http://techgenix.com/16-bit-applications-windows-10/

 

 

Edited by David H. Lipman
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40 minutes ago, David H. Lipman said:

Windows 10 32bit still has NTVDM but its now an option.

NTVDM is under "Legacy Components" within the  "Turn Windows Features On or Off" in the Control Panel applet "Programs and Features".

16-bit-E.jpg

Then In a Administrator level Command Prompt execute;   FONDUE   /enable-feature:NTVDM

EDIT:

Reference:
http://techgenix.com/16-bit-applications-windows-10/

 

 

Nice, thanks David. Good to know for sure. I've never installed x86 Windows 10 even on VM. For almost everything that I do there is no need. The x64 works for stuff I need to work on.

Interesting though - not that I have time to play as I did years ago. Might be interesting to see if one could manually get NTVDM working on an x64

 

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Unfortunately, NTVDM x64 has dependencies on leaked Windows NT source code that you need to obtain from elsewhere.

As such, the only time I actually want NTVDM, I'm unable to use it on my Windows 7 machine... But when I was given this laptop, it still had a bunch of stuff on it with nowhere to back it up to, and the previous owner had mistakenly installed the 32-bit of Windows 10 on it. And Microsoft, in all their infinite wisdom, made it impossible to upgrade from 32-bit Windows to 64-bit without doing the equivalent of a Reformat and Reinstall.

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Maybe I'll install the 64-bit version of Windows 10 Enterprise when I finally get an SSD (a 500 gigabyte SSD is somehow only $80, and would be a huge improvement over the current 160 gigabyte hard disk), then I can work on backing up everything from the old installation. I do wish there was an automatic utility for restoring data and settings between Windows installations, even for different architectures, as long as you still had your old hard drive handy, but hey... You can't have everything. Since I have an external dock to plug hard drives in, everything should be alright.

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MSDN is not for any type of production environment. It is for business to test possible application or deployment issues with. There is a volume license of Enterprise to actually use and deploy, but again it's for business use only, not home use. Really not a lot of difference between that and Pro anyways.

 

 

 

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