Windows Sandbox is a tool in Windows 11 or 10 that allows you to launch apps in a virtualized environment. It is called a Sandbox because it is a protected environment within the operating system.
The advantage of Windows Sandbox is that you can use it for testing. Any apps and changes you install in the Sandbox will not be reflected on the operating system.
Windows Sandbox offers several advantages over traditional virtual machines. It uses less disk space, is faster to set up, and is more secure because it is completely isolated from the operating system. The disadvantage is that it is a function that is only available in Windows version professional and Enterprise licenses. So not in a standard Windows home versie.
If you still want to use Windows Sandbox in Windows Home, this is possible via a script. In this article you can read how you can install Windows Sandbox in Windows Home.
Install Windows Sandbox in Windows 11 or 10 Home
It is important before you proceed that you enable virtualization in the EUFI/BIOS. Copy and paste the script below via a new text document in notepad.
@echo off
echo Checking for permissions
>nul 2>&1 "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\cacls.exe" "%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\config\system"
echo Permission check result: %errorlevel%
REM --> If error flag set, we do not have admin.
if '%errorlevel%' NEQ '0' (
echo Requesting administrative privileges...
goto UACPrompt
) else ( goto gotAdmin )
:UACPrompt
echo Set UAC = CreateObject^("Shell.Application"^) > "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
echo UAC.ShellExecute "%~s0", "", "", "runas", 1 >> "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
echo Running created temporary "%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
timeout /T 2
"%temp%\getadmin.vbs"
exit /B
:gotAdmin
if exist "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" ( del "%temp%\getadmin.vbs" )
pushd "%CD%"
CD /D "%~dp0"
echo Batch was successfully started with admin privileges
echo .
cls
Title Sandbox Installer
pushd "%~dp0"
dir /b %SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\*Containers*.mum >sandbox.txt
for /f %%i in ('findstr /i . sandbox.txt 2^>nul') do dism /online /norestart /add-package:"%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\%%i"
del sandbox.txt
Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:Containers-DisposableClientVM /LimitAccess /ALL
pause
If you cannot copy the script with enters, download the script here.
Save the script as “windows_sandbox_install.bat”. As a batch file. Right-click on the file and click “Run as administrator”.
Wait for Windows Sandbox to install in Windows home.
You can now install Windows Sandbox via the optional parts. I hope this helped you. Thank you for reading!
Also read: Enable Hyper-V or install Hyper-V in Windows 11/10 Home