It is helpful to understand what sandbox is and what it isn’t and what is the best way to help protect your computer.

The Sandbox concept one of isolation. It essentially isolates those items in the sandbox from outside attacks and keeps what ever bad stuff is in the sandbox out of the rest of your system.

Avast AIS has four tools along these lines that help protect your computer from attacks by malicious software.

  1. Sandbox which basically does as I described above
  2. Auto-sandbox which selectively warns and sandboxes what it deems to be questionable executables.
  3. Safe Zone which keeps bad stuff from getting into your computer and spreading
  4. Real-time shields that protect your computer from bad stuff.

Personally I love and use Safe Zone. It is a great easy to use feature of AIS that allows you to not only serf the Net worry free but also protects you from identify theft and the like. I also really like auto-sandbox because it knows that my Firefox, Thunderbird, Open Office programs etc are safe to run. AIS real time shields along with real time protection from a program like Malwarebytes or SuperAntispyware(SAS) do an excellent job of protecting your computer from bad stuff on the Net that may occasionally try and get into your computer. When in doubt about a website one can easily one click into Safe Zone and then use the Chromium browser to go to those questionable websites.

Auto-sandbox protects against malicious executables that one has downloaded and then attempts to run.

I love the combination of AIS along with its Safe Zone and auto-sandbox features used in conjunction with SAS, other prefer Malwarebytes.

I have not yet found a reason to use the regular sandbox feature of AIS.

Sandboxie is overkill that in my opinion is not needed and is more trouble than it is worth. I much prefer to use the AIS with its real-time shields along with its Safe Zone, auto-sandbox features and either real-time versions of Malwarebyes or SAS.