"Contained" installations?

daedal

Gawd
Joined
May 10, 2005
Messages
686
Long story short: I have a work laptop that I use for VPN and SSH.

I'd like to install a few of my own apps in there, but would like to keep them contained in a separate environment (installed in a virtual system basically). I found Sandboxie for browsers but couldn't find another solution for normal apps.

Anything come to mind?
 
I have a virtual machine exclusively for VPNing into work. I use different user accounts on that machine and I make sure not to use the same passwords at work that I do at home.

It works pretty well in my case. It's also the only way I can get it to work since I'm using 64-bit Windows on all my home computers but the Cisco VPN software is 32-bit only.
 
I have a virtual machine exclusively for VPNing into work. I use different user accounts on that machine and I make sure not to use the same passwords at work that I do at home.

It works pretty well in my case. It's also the only way I can get it to work since I'm using 64-bit Windows on all my home computers but the Cisco VPN software is 32-bit only.
I thought about use accounts, but I'd rather have the applications running in a stand-alone environment. Albeit if no other solution is found, that would probably work just fine.
 
Although I've not heard of it before, it seems that Sandboxie can do its work on most programs, not just browsers, if it suits your needs? It appears to be describing browsers as the kind of programs that you're most likely to want to sandbox.
 
Although I've not heard of it before, it seems that Sandboxie can do its work on most programs, not just browsers, if it suits your needs? It appears to be describing browsers as the kind of programs that you're most likely to want to sandbox.

You're right, but the way Sandboxie works is that you install the application as normal, but then run the application in that environment. Ideally, I'd like to be able to both install and run the apps in the environment.
 
I'll add another vote for a virtual machine. You have two good free products to choose from, in VirtualBox and Virtual PC 2007.
 
This talk of VMs made me wonder whether you're allowed to run Vista as a VM guest OS on the same physical machine that it's physically installed on. The Vista Ultimate additional license terms say:

You may use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system on the licensed device.

So does that mean that, if your PC has a valid Vista Ultimate license, then you can install a virtual machine on that PC which runs Vista Ultimate with the same license key? It would seem that the VM would appear as a different device and thus cause activation problems, unless Vista can detect it's in a VM and know what machine it's physically running on (though I wouldn't think it would have direct hardware access, if in a VM).

(There's also a "Downgrade" clause at the end that says that "Instead of using the software, you may use [..] Windows XP Professional"; I suppose you could argue for using XP Professional in a VM under Vista under the same license, although the Vista license key obviously wouldn't work under XP. Probably not a very convincing argument.)
 
I'll add another vote for a virtual machine. You have two good free products to choose from, in VirtualBox and Virtual PC 2007.

VMWare Server is another free option if you don't mind having additional system services running in your host.

In regards to Windows licensing: I'm not entirely sure, but I think the agreement is that you can have Vista Ultimate as a guest VM but you can only have one and you can't use the same license for both host and guest machines. After all, you're running two OSes simultaneously.
 
Ok.. someone fill me in? Virtual Machine? Can't use I've ever used 'em before.
 
Thanks guys - I'll look into the Virtual Machines. I really appreciate all the help!
 
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