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Windows Sandbox Manager

Manager and development environment for Windows Sandbox configuration files (.wsb).

Desktop application built with WinForms (.NET 8) and no third-party dependencies: only base .NET 8 libraries (System.Xml.Linq, System.IO, System.Diagnostics).

Platform .NET License Release


Download

Grab the latest portable single-file executable from the Releases page:

  1. Download SandboxManager.exe.
  2. Run it — no .NET installation required (self-contained build).
  3. Make sure Windows Sandbox is enabled first (see Prerequisites).

Prefer to build it yourself? See Build and run.


Screenshots

Main interface

Windows Sandbox Manager - Main interface

Analyzing and editing a sandbox

Windows Sandbox Manager - Analyzing and editing


Features

  • Sandbox management — list, create, import, rename (alias) and delete .wsb files.
  • Creation wizard — generates a .wsb by answering every option, with explanatory tooltips.
  • Analysis dashboard — parses the XML and displays the parameters with host path validation.
  • Built-in editor — edit the XML and save your changes.
  • Dark theme — custom scrollbars, title bar and tabs.
  • Multi-language — 6 languages (English by default, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian).
  • No external dependencies — everything is built with the base .NET 8 libraries.

Prerequisites

To actually run the sandboxes you create with this tool, Windows Sandbox must be enabled on your machine. The application itself runs without it, but launching a .wsb file requires the feature to be active.

Requirements

  • Windows 10/11 Pro, Enterprise or Education (Home edition is not supported).
  • CPU virtualization enabled in the BIOS/UEFI (Intel VT-x or AMD-V).
  • SLAT (Second Level Address Translation) support.
  • At least 4 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended).
  • At least 1 GB of free disk space.

How to enable Windows Sandbox

Option A — Windows Features (GUI)

  1. Press Win + R, type optionalfeatures and press Enter.
  2. Check the box Windows Sandbox.
  3. Click OK and restart your PC when prompted.

Option B — PowerShell (Administrator)

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName "Containers-DisposableClientVM" -All

Restart your computer after the command completes.

Option C — Command Prompt (Administrator)

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:Containers-DisposableClientVM /all /norestart

Then restart your PC.

Verify it is enabled

Open the Start menu and search for Windows Sandbox. If the app appears, the feature is enabled. You can also run:

Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName "Containers-DisposableClientVM"

The State should be Enabled.

Troubleshooting

  • The feature is missing from the list — you are likely on Windows Home; upgrade to Pro, Enterprise or Education.
  • "Windows Sandbox failed to start" — make sure virtualization is enabled in the BIOS/UEFI and that Hyper-V / Virtual Machine Platform are not conflicting.
  • Error 0x80070057 — run dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth and retry.

Build requirements

  • .NET 8 SDK (only needed to build from source).

Build and run

dotnet build SandboxManager/SandboxManager.csproj -c Release
dotnet run --project SandboxManager/SandboxManager.csproj

The resulting executable is placed at SandboxManager/bin/Release/net8.0-windows/SandboxManager.exe.

Portable version (single executable)

dotnet publish SandboxManager/SandboxManager.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 ^
  --self-contained true -p:PublishSingleFile=true ^
  -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true -p:EnableCompressionInSingleFile=true ^
  -o dist

This produces a single SandboxManager.exe that does not require .NET installed on the target PC.


Repository structure

Path Description
SandboxManager/ Source code of the WinForms project.
SandboxManager/README.md Detailed documentation (architecture, UI, i18n, antivirus).
SandboxManager/ANTIVIRUS.md Explanation of false positives and how to resolve them.
SandboxManager.sln Visual Studio solution file.
docs/ Application screenshots.
.github/workflows/ GitHub Actions CI (build + portable publish).
.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ Issue templates (bug report, feature request).
Backups/ Folder for local backups (ignored by Git).
CHANGELOG.md Version history.
LICENSE MIT License.
CONTRIBUTING.md Contribution guide.

Antivirus and false positives

Some antivirus programs (notably Malwarebytes) may flag the executable as MachineLearning/Anomalous.95%. It is not a virus: it is a heuristic machine-learning detection that triggers on unsigned executables.

The project already includes mitigations (complete metadata, security attributes, hardened P/Invoke, deterministic build). See SandboxManager/ANTIVIRUS.md for details and code-signing options.


Credits

Developed by AIMDICK with the help of:

  • Visual Studio Code — editor.
  • Supermaven — AI autocompletion.
  • Roo Code — AI development agent.
  • DeepSeek V3 — language model.

License

MIT © 2026 Windows Sandbox Manager Project

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