{"slug": "windows-sandbox", "name": "Windows Sandbox", "category": "security", "category_name": "Security and passwords", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 8, "warners": 2, "score": 2.349, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2026-01-06", "latest": "2026-06-27", "why": "It is a tool lots of people don't know Microsoft offers and it is a sandbox, I use it for testing all the time.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 3, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "It is a tool lots of people don't know Microsoft offers and it is a sandbox, I use it for testing all the time.", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/windows-sandbox-overview", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Windows Sandbox"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 779264144, "item_id": 48704009, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48704009", "by": "jxf", "date": "2026-06-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "this sounds immensely useful for technical and nontechnical users", "excerpt": "TIL about Windows Sandbox. Not a Windows user myself (it's the Year of Linux on the Desktop\u2122!) but this sounds immensely useful for technical and nontechnical users -- sort of a super-disposable container with UI? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/", "context": "", "use_case": "Disposable isolated desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anonymous GitHub account mass-dropping undisclosed 0-days"}, {"id": 771780176, "item_id": 48236261, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48236261", "by": "malkia", "date": "2026-05-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's great for testing, and Sandbox is just the tip of the iceberg", "excerpt": "Sandboxing is quite easy (user-wise), once you install the sandbox system. By default it allows only a single sandbox, and with small `.wsb` file you can drive what's visible from the host, whether the GPU should be active, etc. - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/windows-sandbox-configure-using-wsb-file It's great for testing, and Sandbox is", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Valve removes free game from Steam after players discover it contains malware"}, {"id": 769540304, "item_id": 48096269, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096269", "by": "mfro", "date": "2026-05-11", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/", "excerpt": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/", "context": "", "use_case": "Isolating untrusted apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Obsidian plugin was abused to deploy a remote access trojan"}, {"id": 744321729, "item_id": 46520108, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46520108", "by": "ZebusJesus", "date": "2026-01-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is a tool lots of people don't know Microsoft offers and it is a sandbox, I use it for testing all the time.", "excerpt": "Qubes https://www.qubes-os.org/downloads/ Everything is its own VM, you can run apps in secure environments and when you close them it get rid of them. You can even create networking VM's have that connected to a VPN and then make your other VMs go through it for a secure connection. There is a lot you can do with it for privacy. Also in windows pro you have windows sandbox, when you close the sandbox everything is d", "context": "", "use_case": "testing in disposable sandbox", "switched_from": "", "story": "Private Operating System"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 758761152, "item_id": 47422572, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47422572", "by": "injidup", "date": "2026-03-18", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "doesn't even have customizable networking white lists", "excerpt": "It's so frustrating seeing all this sandbox tooling pop up for linux but windows is soooooo far behind. I mean Windows Sandbox ( https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/ ) doesn't even have customizable networking white lists. You can turn networking on or off but that's about as fine grained as it gets. So all of us still having to write desktop w", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": null}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["disposable isolated desktop environment", "isolating untrusted apps", "sandboxed windows environment", "testing in disposable sandbox"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47412569", "title": "item 47412569", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48698617", "title": "Anonymous GitHub account mass-dropping undisclosed 0-days", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48448083", "title": "The Road to the WASM Component Model 1.0", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48235033", "title": "Valve removes free game from Steam after players discover it contains malware", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48088576", "title": "Obsidian plugin was abused to deploy a remote access trojan", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47154399", "title": "Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-03": {"warn": 2}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 779264144, "item_id": 48704009, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48704009", "by": "jxf", "date": "2026-06-27", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "this sounds immensely useful for technical and nontechnical users", "excerpt": "TIL about Windows Sandbox. Not a Windows user myself (it's the Year of Linux on the Desktop\u2122!) but this sounds immensely useful for technical and nontechnical users -- sort of a super-disposable container with UI? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/", "context": "", "use_case": "Disposable isolated desktop environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Anonymous GitHub account mass-dropping undisclosed 0-days"}, {"id": 775827200, "item_id": 48489200, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48489200", "by": "pjmlp", "date": "2026-06-11", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/windows-sandbox-configure-using-wsb-file", "excerpt": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/windows-sandbox-configure-using-wsb-file", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Road to the WASM Component Model 1.0"}, {"id": 771780176, "item_id": 48236261, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48236261", "by": "malkia", "date": "2026-05-22", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's great for testing, and Sandbox is just the tip of the iceberg", "excerpt": "Sandboxing is quite easy (user-wise), once you install the sandbox system. By default it allows only a single sandbox, and with small `.wsb` file you can drive what's visible from the host, whether the GPU should be active, etc. - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/windows-sandbox-configure-using-wsb-file It's great for testing, and Sandbox is", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Valve removes free game from Steam after players discover it contains malware"}, {"id": 769540304, "item_id": 48096269, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48096269", "by": "mfro", "date": "2026-05-11", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/", "excerpt": "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/", "context": "", "use_case": "Isolating untrusted apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "Obsidian plugin was abused to deploy a remote access trojan"}, {"id": 758794080, "item_id": 47424630, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47424630", "by": "ivan_burazin", "date": "2026-03-18", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Can give you access to win sandboxes on Daytona, just fill this in here and lmk! https://www.daytona.io/docs/en/computer-use/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 758761152, "item_id": 47422572, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47422572", "by": "injidup", "date": "2026-03-18", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "doesn't even have customizable networking white lists", "excerpt": "It's so frustrating seeing all this sandbox tooling pop up for linux but windows is soooooo far behind. I mean Windows Sandbox ( https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/ ) doesn't even have customizable networking white lists. You can turn networking on or off but that's about as fine grained as it gets. So all of us still having to write desktop w", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": null}, {"id": 754475154, "item_id": 47154697, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47154697", "by": "7bit", "date": "2026-02-25", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I recently used Windows Sandbox and was surprised that it does not have notepad.", "excerpt": "Can Microsoft please stop? If I need Copilot and Markdown Support I use VS Code or any other software that supports it. I recently used Windows Sandbox and was surprised that it does not have notepad. And why? Because it's a Store App now and that's unsupported inside the Windows Sandbox. Notepad is supposed to be dumb, not Microsoft!", "context": "", "use_case": "sandboxed Windows environment", "switched_from": "", "story": "Windows 11 Notepad to support Markdown"}, {"id": 750653088, "item_id": 46915818, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46915818", "by": "malkia", "date": "2026-02-06", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "one of their users is the Windows Sandbox", "excerpt": "There are containers, and one of their users is the Windows Sandbox - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/application-security/application-isolation/windows-sandbox/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft open-sources LiteBox, a security-focused library OS"}, {"id": 744321729, "item_id": 46520108, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46520108", "by": "ZebusJesus", "date": "2026-01-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is a tool lots of people don't know Microsoft offers and it is a sandbox, I use it for testing all the time.", "excerpt": "Qubes https://www.qubes-os.org/downloads/ Everything is its own VM, you can run apps in secure environments and when you close them it get rid of them. You can even create networking VM's have that connected to a VPN and then make your other VMs go through it for a secure connection. There is a lot you can do with it for privacy. Also in windows pro you have windows sandbox, when you close the sandbox everything is d", "context": "", "use_case": "testing in disposable sandbox", "switched_from": "", "story": "Private Operating System"}]}