Saturday, May 12, 2007

Sandboxie

Are you looking for the best free text editor? Looking for the best wma to mp3 converter? It is quite easy to find free software to do these tasks, the problem is that after you install and test them all, your Windows installation is suddenly filled with registry entries and software you really don't want!

A while a go while browsing LifeHacker I read an article about a software that promised to end these troubles: Sandboxie. So I gave it a try.

I had some wma files to convert to MP3 files and found this free converter, so I installed Sandboxie and run the installer of the software. Everything went OK and the software was installed. I then run the free converter inside the Sandboxie and converted the files. Sure enough the converted files only appeared in the special folder selected by Sandboxie to be the sandbox.

I copied the MP3 files to a real folder on disk, turned off and cleared the contentes of the sandbox. And my Windows installation was exactly what it was before I installed the converter!

I only wished I knew about this software before testing 14 different text editors and totally trashing my Windows installation.

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