Every file on my computer is in the sandbox

[safesurfergirl]

Hello,
I downloaded a short movie file while surfing with Sandboxie and all of a sudden every file on my computer started to show up in the sand box, Driver files, everything. About 12 Gigs worth. I'm running windows 7 professional 64 bit. When I go to use Sandboxie everything works fine, but when I go to close out Internet explorer, it gives me the option to recover or delete files.
My question is, Was this a possible virus? I'm worried that if it is a virus and I recover the items it will infect my machine. And if it's not and I delete the contents it will wipe out everything on my computer?
Does anyone have any experience with or thoughts on this?
Thanks

[Mr.X]

oops!

[Dun]

What do you mean by "all of a sudden every file on my computer started to show up in the sand box"? Sandbox idea (by default and in short) is to have read access to files out of sandbox but files saved by sandboxed apps are saved inside sandbox.
What kind of files and their paths sandboxie control shows you to recover?

[bo.elam]

When I go to use Sandboxie everything works fine, but when I go to close out Internet explorer, it gives me the option to recover or delete files.
My question is, Was this a possible virus? I'm worried that if it is a virus and I recover the items it will infect my machine. And if it's not and I delete the contents it will wipe out everything on my computer?

safesurfergir, next time you close IE, click the option to Delete contents.

You should read the Getting started Help guide.
http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?GettingStarted

You can start here, read about Delete and Recovery settings. Delete settings show you how to set contents of the sandbox to be deleted automatically and Recovery settings are available so you can save files out of the sandbox. Like for example, if you download a video or a picture, you can set the sandbox to give you the chance to save those files to your hard drive.
http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?SandboxSettings

You should also take a look at Application settings>Web browser>Internet explorer, there you ll see settings that you can tick. You might want to tick the one that allows you to save bookmarks, that way you can save bookmarks while browsing sandboxed. Good luck and don't worry about viruses as long as you dont recover them to your hard drive and execute them.

Is also a good idea, as a first time user, to know how Sandboxie and your antivirus interacts with each other. Read this FAQ.
http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?FAQ_Virus

Bo

[safesurfergirl]

Thanks for the info Bo. I'll probably delete the contents next time I open Sandboxie. (I'm so paranoid I'll probably back up everything to an external HD first.)

Dun, I have been using Sandboxie for about a year and never had any issues. I've recovered lots of images, videos and music to my HD from Sandboxie with no issues. On this particular download, I downloaded the file in Sandboxie, recovered it to my HD Then opened it right away to view it. Windows media player opened and started to play the file and right away Sandboxie recover or delete screen popped up and started loading all my files, everything. My documents folder sub folders, drivers, line after line. Everything that's on my HD is in the sandbox. I closed the sandbox several times but it would just pop back up adding more files. At the bottom of the Sandboxie recover screen it said I didn't have enough memory or something like that to finish what ever it was doing. I got paranoid and did a forced shut down. When I restarted my computer everything worked fine. I opened IE in the Sandbox and when I went to close it the recover or delete screen came up with all my files in there. I still don't know why all my files are in the Sandbox. That's never happened in all the times I've recovered items before. What do you guys think happened??

[bo.elam]

Hi safesurfergirl, I don't know what to think. But for something to open sandboxed, either it does because it is a Forced program or the file is running out of a Forced folder. That is if you are using the paid version, if you are using the free version, for programs to run sandboxed, it gets done by right clicking a file and choosing Run sandboxed. Maybe you have WMP set to run sandboxed automatically or you ran Windows explorer sandboxed, If you run Windows explorer sandboxed, a copy of your real Windows explorer pops up open. Perhaps thats what you saw, I dont know.

Bo

[safesurfergirl]

Thanks for the info Bo. Yeah it's kind of weird. I'll let you guys know what happens when I delete the files.
Thanks for your help.

[safesurfergirl]

Hi, sorry for the late reply. Wanted to make sure everything was backed up just in case. Well I did as you suggested and deleted all the files in Sandboxie with no problems. Thanks so much for your guys info and help with this. I'm really glad to have this program on my computer, as it has saved me from several major attacks. Keep up the good work Sandboxie.