Although Windows Sandbox is a part of Windows 11/10 Pro and Enterprise starting with version 1903 (build 18305), this feature is not available for Windows 11/10 Home Edition. Windows Sandbox is a new lightweight desktop environment that enables you to run applications safely in isolation.
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What is the use of Windows Sandbox?
We often download a file from an untrusted website and worry about running that executable on our PC. If you have ever landed in such a situation, you can use the Windows Sandbox isolated platform that will not affect your actual Windows 11/10 machine. Any software installed in the Windows Sandbox environment will stay only in the sandbox and will not affect your host. Once Windows Sandbox is closed, all the software with its files and state are permanently deleted.
When Windows Sandbox is enabled, a read-only 8 GB PortableBaseLayer system partition without a drive letter is automatically created and removed when Windows Sandbox is disabled.
System requirements
To run the Windows Sandbox, you need the following:-
- Windows 11/10 build 18305 or higher
- AMD64 architecture (64-bit)
- Virtualization capabilities enabled in BIOS
- At least 4GB of RAM (8GB is recommended)
- Minimum 1 GB of free disk space (SSD recommended)
- At least 2 CPU cores (4 cores with hyperthreading recommended)
How to Enable Windows Sandbox Feature in Windows 11/10 Home Edition?
Step 1. Press
Step 2. In the Run box, type the following and hit
Notepad
Step 3. In the Notepad file, copy and paste the following lines:-
@echo off echo Checking for permissions >nul 2>&1 "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\cacls.exe" "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\config\system" echo Permission check result: %errorlevel% REM --> If error flag set, we do not have admin. if '%errorlevel%' NEQ '0' ( echo Requesting administrative privileges... goto UACPrompt ) else ( goto gotAdmin ) :UACPrompt echo Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" echo UAC.ShellExecute "%~s0", "", "", "runas", 1 >> "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" echo Running created temporary "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" timeout /T 2 "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" exit /B :gotAdmin if exist "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" ( del "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" ) pushd "%CD%" CD /D "%~dp0" echo Batch was successfully started with admin privileges echo . cls Title Sandbox Installer pushd "%~dp0" dir /b %SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\*Containers*.mum >sandbox.txt for /f %%i in ('findstr /i . sandbox.txt 2^>nul') do dism /online /norestart /add-package:"%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\%%i" del sandbox.txt Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:Containers-DisposableClientVM /LimitAccess /ALL pause
Step 4. Click on the
Step 5. In Save as dialog, type “File name” as
Step 6. The above steps will create a sandbox.bat file in the specified folder. Right-click on the batch file you have created and select
Step 7. Now, a command prompt window will open and install the Windows Sandbox feature on your Windows 11/10 Home PC. When prompted, type
After your computer has finished restarting, you can now enable and disable Windows Sandbox. To access the Windows Sandbox, click on the
How to uninstall the Windows Sandbox feature using Command Prompt?
Step 1. Open elevated Command Prompt.
Step 2. In the administrative Command Prompt, type the following and hit
Dism /online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:"Containers-DisposableClientVM"
After executing the above steps, Windows Sandbox should not exist on your computer.
You might also be interested in our guide on enabling Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) on Windows 11/10 Home edition.
DO NOT DO THIS……GOT MY WINDOWS BRICKED …HAD TO BE REINSTALLED….YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!
I tried it on 2 devices, one worked, the other bricked..