Best Free Browser Protection Utility

There's a scumware plague at the moment. All it takes is a visit to a pushy web site or a "loaded" shareware install, and next minute your Internet Browser homepage has been changed, your default search setting altered, unwanted ads pop up on your screen, and worse.

I took a look at several applications that have proven to be vital in the fight against these unwelcome and possibly harmful intruders.

If you use Windows 2000 or later, my first recommendation for safe browsing is a free program called Sandboxie. It creates a special contained "sandbox" environment on your PC. While browsing within the virtual sandbox provided by Sandboxie, you are totally isolated from the vital portions of your PC, namely your operating system environment on your Harddrive and memory locations for you current OS session. So any files you download are isolated to the sandbox. Similarly, any programs that are executed only do so within the sandbox, and have no access to your normal files, the Windows operating system or any other part of your PC.

Usage is remarkably simple. To start a sandboxed browsing session, you just click the Sandboxie icon from the Quick Launch tray and this will launch your default browser in the sandbox. You can then use it in the normal way to browse to sites or download files, but be aware that the sound may be muted in that video file you're about to view.

If you download a file, it will install normally but, again, will be isolated from your real PC, because any new processes running in your computer memory or entries in the Windows startup areas will be sandboxed.
 
After you have finished browsing, you can right click the Sandboxie icon and delete all sandboxed files and processes, and your PC will be returned to much the same state it was in before the browsing session. You can also change configuration settings to automatically delete all contents when you close a sandbox.  If you want to retain particular downloaded files, you can save them permanently before clearing the contents of the Sandbox.

The advantage is clear: any spyware, trojans, keyloggers or other malware products that "infected" your PC while browsing will be eliminated.

Sandboxie works fine with all browsers and most software applications but requires Windows 2000 and later. It can cause problems on some PC's so backup before installing.  Some very useful configuration guidance can be found at HURST's Security Blog for Sandboxie!

SafeSpace is a similar program with a more visually appealing environment and extra configuration options.  It does take up more system resources than Sandboxie but may be favored by more novice users.  The nice graphical interface makes working with the application simple and straightforward.  Overall SafeSpace is another great application tailored to beginning and intermediate users.  SafeSpace does require .Net Framework 2.0 to be installed prior to installation.  Unfortunatly, version 2.0.41 will be the last official version available.  Artificial Dynamics, the developers of SafeSpace, has apparently been aquired by AppSense Ltd and has disbanded the development team. Limited support will still be available via the Artificial Dynamics support forums, and SafeSpace will continue to be hosted on Download.com – free for personal use.

If you would like to take your system protection even further, look no further than Returnil Virtual System.  With Returnil you get a cloned version of your system partition to boot from and work in.  If anything does happen to go wrong during your session, it's as easy as rebooting your system, and your whole operating system environment is back to where it was.  Returnil provides a slightly different type of protection compared to the former applications reviewed.  I don't know if I would need the level of protection of working in a cloned enviroment, but if the fear of losing or damaging your current system partition is a priority, Returnil should provide an excellent solution.

Website: http://www.sandboxie.com
Download link: http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?DownloadSandboxie
Author: tzuk@sandboxie.com
Current version: 3.26
Version date: April 27, 2008
License: Free
Download File size: 373 KB
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 64bit XP is supported)
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: Yes-Only Windows XP 64bit version
Portable Version Available: No
Non-English languages supported: Polish, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese and Korean
Other relevant information: On 64-bit Windows XP, you must remove Windows Update KB932596 before installing Sandboxie.