How about a 'Recover Registry' option?

[wraithdu]

We have Recover Files already. But if we were to *really* recover an entire program installation from the sandbox, then we'd need to recover the registry changes as well. Is this possible? Planned in the new GUI? Comments?

[r0lZ]

I think someone has written a script to do just that. I can't remember the thread right now, but you should be able to find it by using the search engine.

[wraithdu]

I remember that script. I was just asking that something like that be integrated into Sandboxie to make it easier to use, as I'm sure a lot of people might have trouble getting the script to work.

[dlguild]

I like the concept. I assume the ultimate goal is to be able to do a sandboxed test install, & with a click or 2 convert it to a live install.

[wraithdu]

I like the concept. I assume the ultimate goal is to be able to do a sandboxed test install, & with a click or 2 convert it to a live install.

Yep, that's the idea.

[SnDPhoenix]

Well, in theory, all you would really have to do is just monitor every file and registry key created by a particular executable (the setup file), then if you decide to "keep" the program, then just select "Ok" or "Move" or something like that and all the files and keys would all be moved to the same path, just outside of the Sandbox, sounds easy right? Well, thats why i said in theory, in reality, this would be a much harder thing to do.

[dlguild]

Yes, theoretically more difficult. Beyond the original scope & intention of Sandboxie. It could almost be viewed as a separate product or plugin, i.e. Sandboxie Install. Nice! Free version let's you test, but not recover. Registered version fully functionality! PayPal servers burning up! Tzuk eating gourmet meals every night! Sounds like a plan.

[tzuk]

This feature request keeps coming up. This is how I see it: You can spend one or two minutes re-installing a particular program outside the sandbox, or you can spend hours sifting through the sandboxed registry to identify all the keys that were created during that installation. (Remember that many of the keys may be created in "shared" areas, such as the CLSID tree, so it's not going to be immediately clear if they are part of the installation or not.) So why bother?

[SnDPhoenix]

Tzuk, thats what i agree with, let me explain in my own words; you install a program Sandboxed, you decide you like the program, well instead of just moving all the files/folders and reg keys outside the sandbox, why not just execute the setup file outside the sandbox? Thats the way i've always seen it, thats why i've never made this request.

[MitchE323]

well since wraithdu asked for comments, I would say that before most of us install a program permanently to our system, we already know a good deal about it (esp. security wise) - once around the block sandboxed lets us find out if indeed the program is as it says.

Some programs though require a detailed going through as far as user settings. Also some programs could be not freeware and you might lose one of your registration sets on a reinstall. I imagine that is a couple of the reasons folks are asking for this.
mitch

[SnDPhoenix]

Well why not just have a "detailed going through" of the user settings while in the sandbox and about the registration of software, you should be able to re-register it outside the sandbox just fine, but also though, if you do buy a program though, you shouldn't really be installing the program you just bought sandboxed, you can run it sandboxed, thats fine, but you should really just install it unsandboxed in the first place.

[wraithdu]

I can see both sides here. My main reason (and I used it for this just recently) is testing new software. And Mitch hit it on the head again. I was testing out Miranda IM. I wanted a new client, but I wanted to be sure it had all the functionality I wanted. By the time I had it the way I wanted it, I had been trying plugins and configuring for like an hour and a half. I decided to keep it, and it would have been nice to be able to export all the reg settings and save my self the config time.

I was sure to do this in its own sandbox so all I'd have to do is export the whole thing, and not try to sort through which reg keys belonged to the program.

[Rasheed187]

Never really thought of this, I did sometimes copy folders from the sandbox to my real system, and never had any problems, so I guess those app didn´t use the registry or something. But I agree, would be handy if you totally tweaked a certain app and don´t want to do it all over again.

[MilesAhead]

Hmmm, what I run into a lot are programs that must hide stuff in the registry.
It's annoying because if you use a Reg Cleaner tool to clear out the chaff,
then there's always 2 or 3 programs you have to register again. I was thinking
of trying the installs in Sandboxie to spy out what they're hiding so I could
exclude it from the cleanings.

After a while as more apps do this pretty soon you could be up to a dozen reregisters
every time you clean the registry out(and speaking of that I thought xml was supposed
to do away with the registry?)