Sandboxie & EA's Origin

bourne077 · Post by **bourne077** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:38 pm

Hey everyone,

My question is about using Sandboxie and EA's Origin service. What I need to know is if I have Origin and Sandboxie installed can the Origin service only run in Sandboxie without any access whatsoever to the rest of the folders on my hard drive?

I'll give some background about Origin. Origin is similar to Valve's Steam service, for those that know what I'm talking about, in it's a digital download distribution platform as well as a social hub if you will. However unlike Steam, for the most part, Origin's EULA gives EA the right to snoop the contents of your entire hard drive, including what programs you have installed/uninstalled. Very invasive program and many feel outright invasion of privacy, as do I hence why I'm here asking this question. The only way to "opt out" of using the service is to not install it at all. Unfortunately there are several game titles that run only using Origin and that is where the problem lies.

So my question is this. If I use Sandboxie and decide to take the plunge and install Origin, to be able to have access to those certain titles, can I manage/control how and what, if anything, Origin accesses on my computer??? Can Origin be totally locked down so that when I need to run the program to play my titles I can do so without fear of Origin running rampant throughout the rest of the machine tearing everything apart invading my privacy that EA does not need to know about????

D1G1T@L · Post by **D1G1T@L** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:17 pm

"There's an app for that"

thanks to Wraithdu.
Check dis: http://www.sandboxie.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4885

bourne077 · Post by **bourne077** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:21 pm

@D1G1T@L

Thanks for the tip. I will try it out hopefully sometime this weekend. It does seem to be the "solution" I'm looking for.

Ten_ants · Post by **Ten_ants** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 5:19 pm

Thanks for the link!

ysu · Post by **ysu** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 10:48 pm

funny, I've arrived to sandboxie for the exact same reason.
OP, can you please share any insights if/when you've tried this?

What I'm most intertested in is if the DLL in the other thread works out of the box for this purpose, and what sort (if any) ini changes maybe required?
I find it a bit too much to digest at once

Cuchonchuirr · Post by **Cuchonchuirr** » Sat Oct 01, 2011 10:41 pm

Hi, please help a computer noob out?

I don't know much about computers, but I still care about my privacy. Can anyone answer some ridiculous questions for me?

First of all, for putting Origin in the sandbox, do I install Origin within a sandbox, or install it and then select to run it in a sandbox? Also, do I need to do this more complex dll stuff to make myself really private? As in, if I don't, Origin will find its way out of the sandbox?

I don't know if I have C++ for Windows.

I'm running Windows Vista 7 Ultimate, 64-bit, btw.

BBZangZipper · Post by **BBZangZipper** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 4:41 pm

I too am here just to block EA's Origin spyware on my PC.

Just bought BF3 on Amazon & I wont touch it till I'm sure that a reasonable level of privacy is in place.

I've reached this site from this page which has a different process to what Wraithdu has provided. http://bf3blog.com/forum/topic/how-to-m ... r-computer

At this point I don't know if Wraithdu's approach is automatic and works with all programs, including BF3 or if the link above is the way to go. For example, does sbiextra limit Origin to the bare minimum required to run BF3 or is it just a general fix?

Some clarity would be appreciated since I'm way out of my league with these things. I'm just a casual player & not a PC expert by any means.

I've followed Wraithdu's process and I'm having limiting success. I keep getting an error asking me to insert a PID from the command line but don't know which PID to provide nor do I know which command line.

Does it mean to put a random PID (from task manager) in the sandboxie.ini file?
If so, then the program must already be running which defeats the whole purpose of restricting a program to within the sandbox so what am I missing>

arma2 · Post by **arma2** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 6:59 pm

I'm in the same boat as many other people. Although I have another question. How would I use sandboxie if I'm installing BF3 through disc?

Turick · Post by **Turick** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:51 am

I'm assuming there will be a flood of BF3 users to this forum. Add me to the list

I installed sandboxie and created a box for Origin. I am able to run origin from this sandbox, but don't know if I should really uninstall and reinstall in the actual sandbox, or if I need to follow the instructions linked in the 1st reply. Any sandboxie expert who can chime in would be greatly appreciated. BF3 could end up being a big $$ maker for sandboxie

James13 · Post by **James13** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:07 pm

Are you people playing Battle Field 3 under Sandboxie?

Kanoplia · Post by **Kanoplia** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 12:18 pm

Would someone come up with a toturial and /or a simplified version on how to run EA Origin on Sandboxie?

Thanks!

BBZangZipper · Post by **BBZangZipper** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:15 pm

@James: yes we all want to do that.
@Turick: I have the same concerns. I've been fiddling around with Sandboxie and have a lot of problems trying to run BF2142 (while I wait for BF2 to be officially accessible)

Looks like Origin will be a boon for Sandboxie & we will all learn quite a bit in the process.

Turick · Post by **Turick** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:53 pm

Yes -- just to reitterate the first post...

Battlefield 1942 was a revolutionary game, in that it was the first game to offer the ability to run & gun, drive tanks/vehicles, fly airplanes, etc. The desert combat mod came along and added jets, helicopters, etc.

Battlefield 3 is also revolutionary in terms of game engines -- buildings can be destroyed and leveled, when explosives go off on the ground the leave craters, they used very realistic character modelling and animation from some of the leading sports games, crazy new lighting... basically this is the most advanced graphical game ever created along with HUGE detailed maps and all of the vehicles mentioned before. It's been anticipated for a long time and the trailers, and the beta, were inspiring to say the least

So now that we have this crazy game that everybody is excited about, we find out that it can only be downloaded and ran through this EA client called Origin. Origin is the new Steam (if you know what that is). Origin is basically the central hub for all EA games -- you can buy them on Origin, download them, and launch them. Only problem is, buried in the Origin EULA is the caveat that Origin can track every program on your computer, every place you browse on the internet, etc etc. It's the ultimate spyware -- and it's impossible to play BF3 without it.

Those of us who know about this would like to prohibit it... So it's not really BF3 that is the problem... it's Origin. If Sandboxie can help us prohibit Origin from monitoring everything on our computer, I think Sandboxie would see a quick influx of a couple million customers..............

Originsucks · Post by **Originsucks** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:43 am

have someone tried this yet?
http://bf3blog.com/forum/topic/how-to-m ... r-computer

Glzmo · Post by **Glzmo** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:55 am

Originsucks wrote:have someone tried this yet?
http://bf3blog.com/forum/topic/how-to-m ... r-computer

Yeah, that will work, although you may also want to block some of the registry.

However, this isn't ideal, as whenever you add a new folder (or install any new software) you will have to manually add that folder to the block list.

It would really be great if we could block a program from accessing every HDD and folder except certain folders we define manually.

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