How to Enable Windows Sandbox in Windows 11

Windows Sandbox

Windows Sandbox provides a lightweight desktop environment to safely run applications in isolation. Software installed inside the Windows Sandbox environment remains “sandboxed” and runs separately from the host machine.

A sandbox is temporary. When it’s closed, all the software and files and the state are deleted. You get a brand-new instance of the sandbox every time you open the application.

Note Note: However, that as of Windows 11 Build 22509, your data will persist through a restart initiated from inside the virtualized environment—useful for installing applications that require the OS to reboot.

Prerequisites

Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise or Education build 18305 or Windows 11 (Windows Sandbox is currently not supported on Windows Home edition)
AMD64 or (as of Windows 11 Build 22483) ARM64 architecture
Virtualization capabilities enabled in BIOS
At least 4 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended)
At least 1 GB of free disk space (SSD recommended)
At least two CPU cores (four cores with hyperthreading recommended)

Virtualization with Windows Sandbox

Virtualization is an important part of the sandbox. As it runs on an elevated space, it must need the virtualization feature. You have to make sure that you already have enabled virtualization.

1. Right click on the Windows Taskbar then open the Task Manager.

2. After opening the Task Manager, go to the Performance tab. Then click CPU and check the virtualization status like below:

If the virtualization status says that it has already been enabled, then you are ready to proceed to the next steps. If it says that it has been disabled, then you need to enable it from the BIOS. For that, you need to boot into the BIOS/ UEFI menu on your Windows 11 PC and look for Virtualization or SVM Mode.

Enable Windows Sandbox in Windows 11

There’re two ways to enable Windows Sandbox on Windows 11. You can quickly enable it using PowerShell or via Windows Features option.

Enable Windows Sandbox using PowerShell

1. Right click on the Windows Start icon 🪟 then select Windows Terminal (Admin).

2. Run the following command to enable Windows Sandbox feature..

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

3. Locate and select Windows Sandbox on the Start menu to run it for the first time.

Enable Windows Sandbox with GUI

1. Use the search bar on the task bar and type Turn Windows Features on or off to access the Windows Optional Features tool.

2. Select Windows Sandbox and then OK. Restart the computer if you’re prompted.

Note Note: If the Windows Sandbox option is unavailable, your computer doesn't meet the requirements to run Windows Sandbox.

Usage

You can copy an executable file (and any other files needed to run the application) from the host and paste them into the Windows Sandbox window.

When you’re finished experimenting, close the sandbox. A dialog box will state that all sandbox content will be discarded and permanently deleted. Select Ok.