I recently had an issue with one of my tutorial posts that outlines how to secure a D-Link DI-524 wireless G router. The issue was that the steps I provided didn’t exactly match the options that were available on some DI-524 routers. After a few readers reported this issue, I decided I should look into the cause.

After doing some quick research on that particular router, I learned that there are actually three different revisions of that router. This caused the issue because two of the three revisions had different administrative screens that those I outlined in the post. If you would like to find the revision of your router, then read on.

Finding Your DI-524 Revision

As mentioned above, there are three revisions of the DI-524 wireless G router. While not obvious to most that use the router, there are minor differences between the administrative pages between the first two revisions and the final one. To find the revision that you are using, follow these steps:

1. Login to your router.
2. Click The “Status” tab at the top.
3. The “Firmware Version” will indicate the router revision you are using, as this table
   shows:

   Revision	Firmware
   A	1.xx
   C	3.xx
   D	4.xx

Small Differences Between Revisions

There are a small number of differences within the administration pages that can cause confusion when outlining steps to changing your router settings. A good example, as mentioned above, is the page where you set your wireless security settings. While the settings are similar between the three revisions, how they settings are actually set are different.

Since I have learned about the three difference revisions, I have since update my past post on securing the router.

Related Posts

Securing the D-link DI-524 Wireless Router
How to Reset the D-Link DI-524 Wireless Router

Someone recently as me a question as to why some files appear in either a blue or green colour when they viewed their files in Window Explorer. They were wondering if there was a problem with those files and what should they do about it.

I assured them that there was no problem with their files, and that it was perfectly normal to see some files in another colour other than black.

Colourful Windows Explorer

The NTFS file system allows you to easily compress or encrypt entire directories or files. Compressing a file or directory allows you to save space on your hard disk, albeit, with a slight performance hit. Windows compresses the hotfix directories found in your Windows root directory.

If you want to keep people from viewing certain files on your computer, then you can encrypt those files so that only you can access them.

Feature	Colour
Compression	Blue
Encryption	Green

How to Turn Off the Colouring

If you prefer not to use colors to denote a compress or encrypted file, then you can easily turn it off. To do this, use these steps:

1. Open Windows Explorer, and then click “Tools->Folder Options”.
2. Click the “View” tab.
3. Scroll down and uncheck “Show encrypted or compressed NTFS files in color
4. Click the “Apply” button.
5. Click the “Apply to All Folders” button.
6. Click “OK” to close the dialog.

Now all your compress or encrypted files and directories will be displayed in their default color.

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There are many times where after you have installed and used a wireless router for some time, you may need to access the administrative settings to make some changes. Sometimes, you may have forgotten to the user ID or password to access those settings. You may also experience problems with your router, and no matter how many settings you change, you can’t get the router to work properly.

If you need to start over with your router, one solution is to reset your router back to its factory defaults. This means that you return all the settings on the router back to what they were when you first purchased and setup the router. This post will explain the two methods you can use to reset the Linksys WRT160N wireless-n router.

Using the Reset Button

The first method involves using the reset button that is located at the back of the router. It isn’t hard to reset the router this way, but does require physically being in the same location as the router.

To reset the router using the reset button, use these steps:

1. Look for the red reset button at the back of the router.
2. Press and hold the reset button for approximately 5 seconds.

Reset the Router Through the Administrative Pages

The second method involves logging into the administrative pages of your router. This can be done from anywhere that you can connect to your router. While not complex, there are a few more steps than using the reset button.

1. Log in to the router’s administrative pages.
2. Click the “Administration” menu option.
3. Next, click “Factory Defaults” from the sub-menu.
4. Click the “Restore All Settings” button on the screen.

Regardless of which method you use to reset your router, it is important to secure your router after it has been reset.

Blogger was created to provide an easy way for anyone to create a blog within a matter of minutes. You don’t need to know HTML or CSS to write and publish posts on a Blogger blog, since the user inteface, and templates, do it all for you. While you can edit the code, if you wish, for most people it is easier to simply add gadgets and move them around.

With this ease of use comes some restrictions, such as not being able to create pages that execute code. I have managed to provide alternatives to getting around several restrictions, and today I will discuss another alternative – displaying a blog list as a static page. Doing something such as this was asked a little while ago in my comments, and while I provided a quick reply, I decided to provide a more thorough solution.

A Blog List Post

As with many Blogger solutions I have created, this one involves using a blog post to display a blog list gadget. While you can’t add a gadget to a blog post, you can make it look like you did with some creative editing.

1. Log into your Blogger account and create a new post.
2. If you have already created static pages in the past, then do the same for this post. If you haven’t created static pages, then follow the instructions to create a static page in Blogger.
3. Enter a title for the page, but don’t enter any content for the page. The content will come from a blog list gadget, which you will see later.
4. Click the “Post Options” link at the bottom to display additional options.
5. Under “Reader comments”, select “Don’t allow”. The reason we don’t want comments is because they will disrupt the layout of our blog list page.

Blogger Blog List – Post Settings.
(Click to enlarge)
6. Click the “Publish Post” button at the bottom to save the post.
7. View you new blog list post, and copy the URL from the address bar. We will need this URL later, so keep it handy.
8. Next, click the “Layout” tab at the top of the page.
9. Click an “Add a Gadget” link in the page element layout and then scroll down the list and click the plus sign next to “Blog List”.
10. Clear the “title” option so there is no text in the edit box.
11. Edit the remaining options to your preference as everything else won’t effect how to display the blog list.

Blogger Blog List – Configure Blog List Gadget.
(Click to enlarge)
12. Once you have changed the options, and added blogs to the list, click the “Save” button to add the blog list to your layout.
13. Back at your blog’s page element layout, drag the “Blog List” gadget so it appears directly below the “Blog Posts” gadget. Since your blog list post contains no text, just a title, the blog list will be displayed directly under your post title.

Blogger Blog List – Location of Blog List Gadget.
(Click to enlarge)
14. Click the “Save” button to save your current layout.
15. Now we will need to edit some code. Click the “Edit HTML” option at the top of the page.
16. Check the “Expand Widget Templates” checkbox to view all the HTML code for your template.
17. Search for “bloglist” until you find a line similar to:
    <b:widget id='BlogList1' locked='false' title='' type='BlogList'/>
18. Below the line shown above, you will find an includable line. Right after that line we need to include the following:
    <b:if cond='data:blog.url == "[URL of your blog list post]"'>

    so it looks like:

    <b:includable id='main'>
      <b:if cond='data:blog.url == "[URL of your blog list post]"'>
19. Now we need to close the if statement, so scroll down, until you find:
    </b:widget>
20. Directly above that line is the end of the includable tag, which you should preceed with the closing if tag, like so:
      </b:if>
    </b:includable>
21. When the changes have been made, click the “Save Template” button to save your template. If all goes well, when you view your blog list post, you should see a static page that displays only the post title with the blog list gadget.

For an example of what a blog list page looks like, please check out the blog list static post on Blogger to the Limit.

The above steps provides a compromise to those that want to display a static blog list page on a Blogger blog. The steps simply create a blank post that will only contain a title. Since there is no content, the blog list gadget will displayed flush up against the post title, which is what we want.

Next we change the blog list gadget code to only display the contents of that gadget when the URL is the same as the blog list post URL. This prevents the blog list from displaying on any other page or post on the blog.

One final note, the reason we disable comments on the blog list post is because the comment box is part of the blog posts gadget. This means that if it wasn’t disabled, the page would display the title, followed by the comment box, and then the blog list. This, obviously, won’t look good so we disable the comments.

Related Posts

Creating Static Pages in Blogger – Part 2
How to Create a Development Blog in Blogger
Blog Designing Tops for New Bloggers
Remove Navigation Links For Static Pages in Blogger
Hiding Static Pages from Main Page in Blogger

I have written several tutorials that involve editing a Blogger blog template. They are some of the most popular posts on Technically Easy. While some of the tutorials are not complex, others may require quite a bit of editing to the template.

When someone would like clarification about a particular piece of code, they attempt to paste it into the comments, but unfortunately, the code is removed and empty whitespace is what appears. In this post I will describe how you can easily paste HTML code in your comment, not only on this blog, but probably any blog.

Showing HTML in a Web Page

When you would like to show actual HTML code in a Web page, you can’t simply type the HTML in a Web page and have it show up on the page. The browser would read that code and render it in the browser, instead of showing the actual code.

The trick to display actual code, like I have done with my Blogger template tutorials, is to replace a few characters with literal HTML character codes. You can also do this with blog comments.

Anyone who has coded in HTML knows that HTML is comprised of tags that are used to render information within the browser. The tags are surrounded by the less-than and greater-than brackets. If you want to display HTML code in a web page, or blog comments, you can replace the brackets surrounding the tags with literal HTML character codes.

This table shows the brackets and their corresponding HTML character code:

This means that to display this code in your blog comment, or web page:

You will need to enter the following:

If you ever need to display HTML code in a blog comment or on a web page, you can use literal HTML character codes in your HTML to prevent the browser from interpreting and rendering your HTML.

It has been a while since I have written a post regarding digital cameras. Since that time I have been learning more about digital cameras, especially on apertures and shutter speeds. While I am enjoying the learning process the one element that I have also been focusing on is taking tack-sharp photos.

For the most part, I usually hand hold my cameras when taking pictures. It is easier to move around chasing my boys while hand-holding the camera than keeping it on a tripod. At the same time, I have also started to look into taking photos of still life, and eventually want to look into landscape photography. During my experimenting I have learned about some points that will help make sure I take tack-sharp photos.

How to Get Sharp Photos

Below are a list of points that you can use to ensure you photos always come out their sharpest.

Use a tripod.

This is probably the most common tip when trying to get your photos the sharpest. Hand-holding your camera can easily affect the sharpness because your camera can move when you take the picture, especially if you use a slow shutter speed. If you want a sharp photo, you should always use a tripod.

Use a remote cable shutter release or self-timer.

In addition to use a tripod, you should also invest in a remote cable that you can use to control your shutter. This cable simple connects to your camera, and contains a button that controls the shutter, much like the one on your camera. This means that you can take the picture without physically handling the camera. You can also use a wireless shutter release for even more flexibility. If you don’t have a remote release, you can always set the self-timer on your camera and then stand back until it takes the picture.

Switch to a smaller aperture.

While opening up your aperture to say f2.8 will allow you to increase the shutter speeds, it also provides a shallow depth of field. This means only a small area around the focus will be sharp, while all other areas in the photo will be blurred. This is great for singling out an object, but if you want sharpness throughout the photo, decrease your aperture to f22. Of course, this will mean your shutter speed will be much slower, but you are using a tripod, right?

Reduce the ISO setting.

A higher ISO allows you to use faster shutter speeds in low light. As you increase the ISO, the less light you need, however, you also develop more noise in your image. The noise is coloured pixels that are visible when you zoom in on the photo. If you print large photos, the noise may be noticeable. This can also have an effect on sharpness as well, especially if the camera uses a strong noise reduction algorithm. You should reduce the ISO to the lowest setting if you want to make you images the sharpest then can be.

Disable the image stabilizer.

This is one tip I didn’t know about until I read it in several articles. With the image stabilizer, vibration reduction, or whatever it is called with your camera, activated on your lens, it will begin to search for movement in your photo. If there is no movement, since you are making all effect to avoid the camera movement, the image stabilizer may cause slight movement in the camera as it operates. When using a tripod, you should disable the image stabilizer on your camera.

Enable mirror lockup.

This point are for those that want to squeeze every bit of sharpness out of their photo. When you take a digital photo on a DSLR, the mirror inside the camera flips up and out of the way. This exposes the digital image to the sensor. When the mirror flips up, it can cause a small vibration within the camera which can result in a less than sharp photo, especially with very slow shutter speeds. To avoid such a problem, DSLRs provide a setting called “mirror lockup” that will move the mirror out of the way before the taking the photo. Pressing the shutter button once will lockup the mirror, and you press the shutter button second time to take the photo.

The above list provides some good points you can use to get the most sharpness from your digital photos. If you haven’t tried some of the above options, give them a try and see if the sharpness of you photos improve. While you shouldn’t use the above settings all the time, for those moments when you are using a slow shutter speed and need all the sharpness your camera and lens can provide, the above list will help.

Well I did it again. Not being happy with my last theme, I decided to start a new theme from scratch. The good news was that I was able to reuse some of the PHP code from the last theme, so I saved some typing. I’m happy with how this theme turned out, so I’ll keep it for a while.

One issue I did notice was that this theme became slow after I applied it to Technically Easy. I couldn’t understand why, as the amount of code is actually less than my previous theme. Upon further investigation, I was able to determine a problem, which was unrelated to my theme, and was able to find a solution.

Performance Check

Whenever I want to test the performance of my blog, I quickly turn to Pingdom Tool’s Full Page Test. I once again used the tool to find the performance problem. I simply entered my blog’s URL into the edit box on the web page, and clicked the “Test now” button.

Within a matter a seconds I received my results. The tool shows how long each object takes to download from the web server. When I viewed the results of the test I noticed that there were a few Javascript files being loaded. One of the files (prototype.js) was over 120 KB in size, so it was a big chunk of my blog’s download size.

After doing a quick search within the Wordpress forums, I found out that that the prototype.js files was only needed within the admin pages of Wordpress. So why was it loading when I displayed a page on Technically Easy?

As I read further, references were made to that fact that plugins can also load those files when needed. I quickly went back to my list of plugins.

Disabling a Plugin to Increase Performance

Many plugins load various files when they are used. In my case, a large Javascript file was being loaded on each page request. This slowed down the viewing of my blog, since the browser waited to download the file from the server.

I knew of one plugin that required Javascript files to display larger views of my images to a visitor. This plugin was called Lightbox 2. While I did enjoy using the plugin, I wanted to find a solution that would allow me to control when to load the Javascript files instead of loading them all the time. I also found out how to do that as well.

I came across a post on Yoast called Quick WP tip #2: Conditional Thickbox loading that explained how to load Thickbox Javascript files only when needed. Thickbox does the same thing as Lightbox, so I decided to disable the Lightbox 2 plugin, and use Thickbox.

After modifying my posts to use Thickbox, I added the function from the Yoast post into my theme’s functions.php file. I then disabled the Lightbox 2 plugin and tested the posts.

Each post that used the Thickbox script to display the larger images loaded the correct Thickbox Javascript files. The pages that didn’t use Thickbox, didn’t load the Thickbox files. I also no longer had the prototype.js file loaded when viewing my blog. This has increased the load of my blog dramatically.

If the performance of your Wordpress blog is not where you want it to be, I suggest you perform a test to find out which object is causing the slowdown. From there you can research a solution to the problem.

I am a child of the eighties, and grew up playing many of the early computer games. The games were smaller and simpler back then, and at times, you had to manage everything on your computer, including disk space usage and conventional memory. I started on a 8088 with 20 MB of disk space and 640 KB of RAM. Oh, and a CGA graphics card that could display 4 colours.

At times, I do enjoy trying to get some of the older games to play on my current computer. Sometimes they work, many times they don’t even want to try to work on XP or Vista. Then again, I’d rather not work on Vista myself. About a year ago I discovered a great site that sells old computer games, that will also play on the current Microsoft operating systems. I purchased one game back then, and I wasn’t disappointed.

Good Old Games

When I talk to others that are the same age as me, once conversation that usually adds energy to the conversation is when we talk about old TV shows, or games we used to play as kids. Many times, I find out that they wish they could still play some of those old games. While board games are easy to find and purchase in stores, computer games are more difficult, especially getting them to run on the newer machines of today.

One method that I have used with success is by using DOSBox to run old DOS games on Windows. While that works for me, others may not want to get too technical just to load up “Maniac Mansion”.

Last year I came across a site that sells old, classic computer games. The difference is these games are modified to work on Windows XP and Vista. The site is GOG.com, which means “Good Old Games”.

I have purchased three games from them, and so far have had no issues. One game was released in 1996, just after Windows 95, and works without problems on both XP and Vista.

Each game on their site is offered for either $5.99USD or $9.99USD. The newer games, not by year but by when the game was available for purchase on GOG.com, are offered at the higher price. While you can download the game for free somewhere else, you do get a bit more for you money here.

You Get What You Pay For

Many of the older games can be found online from various “abandonware” sites. These are usually the original games zipped up. While some provide instructions on how to run the game, many provide very little support for the actual running of the game.

At GOG.com, when you purchased the game, you get full support then it comes to making the game run on your computer. While I haven’t experienced any problems, others have, and have posted issues on the GOG.com forums. From their, their issue will be examined and, hopefully, a solution will be found. When you buy the game, the support is automatically included.

Unlike other sites, all games include the GOG.com installer. You simply download the executable from their web site, after you purchase the game, and then double-click the file. The installer will begin and step you through installing the game onto your computer. Once the game is installed, you can then run the game.

What happens if you lose the executable you download from GOG.com? No problem. You login into their site and download the file again. You can download the file as many times as you want. You bought the game, and have 100% access to it from their site. Your account displays all the games you have purchased, so you can easily find and re-download the game.

There are also other files you can download besides the actual game file. The games also include their original manual in PDF format. Some games even include maps, supporting documentation, and original music from the game. When they add games to their inventory, they take the time to add the extras you will need.

Many of the old games were notorious for including copy-protection. The games you buy from GOG.com have the copy-protection removed, so you don’t have to pull out a manual and look for a specific word in a specific paragraph on a specific page. I’m pretty sure I was the only one annoyed by the copy-protection.

How Long to Download?

The games you download are of various sizes. Since some games were published after 2000, optical discs allowed the games to become large. Others that were published in the 1990’s and 1980’s tend to be smaller since they were released on floppy disks. This means that there are various sizes, in terms of bytes, for each game download.

Each time you view the description of a game you are shown the game sizes in megabytes. This will give you an idea of how much time is needed to download the entire game.

The good news is that I had no trouble download games from the GOG.com web site. In fact, I always got great speeds when download games. The current download speed of my ISP is 14 Mb/s, or 1.75 MB/s. When I downloaded games from GOG.com, I was getting close to 1.75 MB/s download speeds for the entire download. I’m not sure if everyone was downloading games near their ISP’s maximum download speeds, but I had no problems.

What’s the Catch?

Honestly, there is no catch. Well, okay there is one. Their library of games isn’t very extensive. There are many great games available at the moment, but if you are looking for a particular game, it may not be available on their site.

They are a fairly new site, and are constantly adding new games on a regular basis. They also provide an area where you can vote on which games you would like offered. While they can’t guarantee that the game will be available, it does help to see which ones are in demand.

Don’t forget, that before they offer a game, they first need to make the game run under Windows XP and Vista, as well as provide the game documentation in PDF format and any other supporting files. When the game you want is offered, you won’t be disappointed.

My Thoughts

GOG.com has finally done something no one else has done – offer great classic games for a reasonable price that run under the current versions of Windows. While many game companies have repackaged their old games to run under Windows, GOG.com offers games from many different companies.

The ability to download the game as often as you want, along with providing the manuals, and removing the copy-protection, makes GOG.com a great place to go for your “Good Old Games”.

It has been a little while since I have talked about data backup. I like to bring up this subject once in a while since I think it is important for everyone to understand. If you have taken many digital photos, collect your family genealogy information, or have written many work/school assignments then you probably have it stored on your computer.

The reality, unfortunately, is that if you haven’t implemented a good backup solution, or workflow, you are at risk of losing your data. Think about your data and ask yourself one question: can I stand to lose all of my data? You will probably answer “no”, so let’s look at what you need to think about when developing your backup plan.

Features of Data Backup

If you are serious about keeping your data safe, then there is a little more to backing up your files then just burning them to an optical disc. The list I discuss below may not be an exhaustive list, but it will provide several points that you need to think about when you decide to backup your data.

Multiple Copies of Your Data

This is the one point that everyone seems to understand. When you backup your files, you make a second copy of your data. This way if the original files are lost, you can restore the copy. When you do make copies, you should make at least two copies, not just one. If you burn your data to an optical disc (DVD or CD), there is a chance the disc could become corrupted. Making a second copy can reduce the chances of losing your data.

Move Your Data Offsite

This is a point that many people probably don’t think about when backing up their files. Offsite basically means moving (physically) your data to another location – away from your computer. For example, if you burn your data to an optical disc, or copy it to a USB flash drive, you should move the optical disc, or flash drive, to another location. This way if something were to happen to the location housing your original data, your backed up data is unaffected. A good solution to this is to look into backing up your data online, such as with Mozy or Carbonite.

Use High-Quality Media

I have seen some people using media that they bought because it was on sale or cheap. A quick word to the wise: in computers, you get what you pay for. You buy cheap, you get cheap. Don’t trust your data to low-quality, cheap media, especially when it comes to optical discs. Buy high-quality brands. For optical discs, choose Taiyo Yuden (my favourite), Verbatim, Sony or Mitsui Gold. Hard drives look into Western Digital or Seagate.

Invest in a UPS

No not the delivery company, a backup battery device. An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) may not help you to backup or restore your data, but it will help protect your computer and data. If you experience a power outage, your could potentially damage your hard drive if it was busy writing data. A UPS is designed to switch to it’s internal battery (charged by a wall outlet) when the power goes off, giving you a few minutes of power to allow you to close your applications and shut down your computer. They cost over $100, but are a great investment to keep your computer, and data safe.

Develop a Backup Plan that Works for You

I can never stress this point enough. A data backup plan is only good if you know how to implement it. You need to know how to backup your data, and make sure it meets your needs. For example, if you have a lot of data (over 100 GB), then maybe optical discs aren’t cost-effective or easy for you to use. Maybe USB flash drives, with their larger storage capacity, are a better alternative. Make sure that when you do develop a solution, it works for you.

My Backup Plan

I have been actively implementing a backup solution for years. Anyone that knows me, knows that I like to take digital photos, and having three young boys means I take a lot of photos.

I had planned on using DVD discs for backups, but have outgrown the size of such media. I currently have 180+ GB of data that I backup and currently have it stored on two external hard drives and online. Once the large capacity USB flash drives come down in prices, I will probably include those in my plan.

While you may or may not have as much data, it is important that if you have any irreplaceable data, that you develop your own data backup plan.

Now some questions to you: do you have data that you don’t want to lose? If so, have you implemented a data backup solution to keep that data safe?

• Data Backup Solutions
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Keeping your data and computer secure is very important, especially if you spend much of your time online. There are many ways for hackers to gain access to your computer while you download files from web sites. This is why it is important to always install and use anti-virus and anti-malware software, a software firewall, and a hardware firewall.

I recently came across another utility that can also help protect your computer. This utility allows you to isolate all your internet activity so everything can be easily deleted if needed. It is a really small tool that I have been using for a few days called Sandboxie.

Isolating Your Activity

How many times have you come across some software that you thought would be useful? You download the software and install it on your computer. After some time, your either realize it isn’t what you need, or the trial has expired, so you uninstall it from your machine. Later on, you notice that it didn’t completely uninstall and is now causing problems on your computer. Worse yet, you realize that is has installed some nasty malware that is wreaking havoc.

Another scenario could play out where you open a web site and the site downloads software in the background, which then causes you problems. These two scenarios are all too common online. I know I have experienced the first scenario, and wish there was a better way of handling software I wanted to try out.

Imagine if you could now isolate your internet activity, and trial software installs to the point where you can easily remove it completely without any long term harm to your computer. Sounds good? Well, it is possible with a utility called Sandboxie.

Sandboxie allows you to isolate an application on your computer. It creates a sandbox that contains all the files and registry keys that are created and modified by the application in the sandbox. For example, opening a web browser in Sandboxie means that all temporary internet files, cookies, and downloaded files are stored in the sandbox, isolated from the rest of your computer.

Any software that is downloaded and run from the browser is automatically installed into the sandbox. When you are done with the software, simply clear out the sandbox contents and your computer is once again clean; no trace of the software anywhere.

Simple But Effective

The tool itself is really small and easy to use. The entire application, minus the sandbox, comes in at 2 MB, which is tiny compared to other applications you have probably installed. There is only one main window that displays all the information you need.

There is a program view that shows all the programs that are currently running in Sandboxie. It allows you some control over the application, such as how it communicates with files and directories outside the sandbox, and also allows you to terminate the application.

Sandboxie – Program View.
(Click to enlarge)

By clicking “View->Files and Folders” you can see all the files and folders that are currently in the sandbox. If you were to look in the same directory on your computer that is displayed in this view, chances are you won’t find the same files. These files are located in the sandbox only.

Sandboxie – File and Folders View.
(Click to enlarge)

With these two views, you can manage your applications, files and folders within the sandbox. If there is a file that you want to keep (clearing the contents of the sandbox will delete the file), you can easily right-click the file and select one of the two recover options.

The default settings have worked for me. I haven’t needed to change any of the settings, but if I did have issues with an application, the creator of Sandboxie may have a solution. Sandboxie’s web site lists some issues with common applications, and how to solve them. It is usually related to allowing the application in the sandbox to access a file or folder outside the sandbox.

There is a free and registered version of the tool. Just as with any software, there are a few things that you can’t do with the free version, such as forcing web browsers to open in the sandbox. The limitations, however, don’t reduce the effectiveness of the tool.

You can always force any application to load in the sandbox by changing the shortcut target. For example, I changed my Firefox shortcut to the following:

This now means that when I click the shortcut, it will automatically load my Firefox web browser into a Sandbox.

Things to Keep in Mind

With all the benefits of using Sandboxie, it can be confusing to some. Remember, that when you install an application within the sandbox, you can’t access that application easily outside of that sandbox. Any shortcuts the install created will not appear in the start menu or desktop. You would need to open the sandbox and right-click the shortcut and select “Run Sandboxed” to execute the application. This means that you will need to manage your applications when using Sandboxie.

You can make it easier by creating multiple sandboxes, perhaps one for web browsers, one for trial software, one for your e-mail programs, etc.

Also, Sandboxie only runs on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows Server 2003. All other operating systems are not supported.

While Sandboxie is effective at protecting your computer while you are online, it is also important to note that you should still install an anti-virus and anti-malware tool, as well as ensure you are behind both a software and hardware firewall. Sandboxie isn’t a replacement for any of these tools, it is merely an addition.