File and Folders View - remove empty folders from tree

[Tridens]

I love SBIE, but if there's one thing that drives me crazy, it's that the Files and Folders View retains directories that are empty. This requires, before deleting a sandbox contents, to go to Files & Folders and manually click each and every directory in the tree to make sure there's no data one might accidentally delete. This is an unnecessary waste of time. Could you please change this behavior so empty directories are removed from the tree? This would save users like me a tremendous amount of time and tedium.

Thanks for considering this request!

Craig

[Craig@Invincea]

We've never been able to recreate this issue.

[Tridens]

What is that supposed to mean? The issue has been reported before but you can't recreate it? Or I'm the first to report?

[Domochevsky]

Hm, it certainly is an actual thing. Usually programs (nvidia for example) or Windows itself creates some default folders (likely to check if some files exist) and then don't delete them if they're empty. The result is a bunch of empty folders, just sitting there with nothing in them.

[Craig@Invincea]

Hm, it certainly is an actual thing. Usually programs (nvidia for example) or Windows itself creates some default folders (likely to check if some files exist) and then don't delete them if they're empty. The result is a bunch of empty folders, just sitting there with nothing in them.

I can't say I've seen "empty" folders laying around in the SB. nVidia, which I'm assuming would be driver type programs, shouldn't be installed directly into the SB anyway. To delete anything in the SB, one should delete the contents of each sandbox. This is the correct way of doing it.

The sandbox isn't meant to be a permanent storage OR a repository for running programs.
It's fine to install and test (however, that's becoming more and more less frequent with Windows 10)
....but the purpose of the SB is to run a program under the safety of SBIE and then delete the contents...As SBIE is not a VM.

The hierarchy it creates is rudimentary and only for a scratch space when running browsers, files, etc in that temporary container.

If you have a program you use frequently, and you deem it safe. Install it on your host. If you gone on line with that program, run it "as sandboxed" and routinely delete the contents of your sandbox.

[Craig@Invincea]

What is that supposed to mean? The issue has been reported before but you can't recreate it? Or I'm the first to report?

Delete the contents of your sandbox. This is how it supposed to be done, and not used as a Virtual file system or repository.

[Tridens]

Craig, thanks for the detailed response. I appreciate and value your time.

I understand the purpose of the sandbox is not permanent. That's exactly how I'm using it. In fact, it's my browsers I'm referring to. I download files to multiple locations when I'm downloading. Sometimes it's just my download directory, but often it's directly to folders stored in multiple locations. My documents folders and subfolders, my NAS and subfolders, etc. When I go to delete the contents of the sandbox, I have to click to expand every one of these directories and sub-directories to ensure I haven't forgotten to move something out of the sandbox (for example, if I've ignored the quick recovery dialog when the fild download completes).

I think it's a reasonable, and -- I would think -- a fairly easily implementable suggestion to have the View --> Files & Folders command just refresh the tree and remove any empty directories it finds from the view. There's no reason I can think of to leave them there, and I think this tweak would benefit all.

Thanks, and have a great weekend.

Craig

[Tridens]

I'm raising this feature request again. This easily implementable suggestion (refresh the directory tree to remove empty folders) would save me HUGE amounts of time, frustration, and the potential of data loss. I also think it would benefit any user (there is no reason to need to view empty folders). I would be extremely appreciative of this improvement. Thanks for listening.

Craig

[Tridens]

Love Sandboxie. Love the support.

But I'm asking, once again--over one year after my original request--for you to make this simple change that will make a huge difference in my regular usage of Sandboxie. Purge empty folders from the Sandboxie tree in Files & Folders view. It will avoid accidental deletion. It makes clearning out the Sandbox something I'd do more regularly because it would take much less time.

Thank you for considering this truly simple request.

Craig

[Tridens]

Bumping this 18 month old request. This is the biggest usability / efficiency problem I have in using SBIE. Would you please consider placing this fix. I think it passes both the logical and common sense "sniff" tests. And you would have my deep gratitude!

Thanks again.