Microsoft releases a Windows Sandbox Client Preview

Build 27686 of Windows 11 is out for Canary Channel Windows Insiders including the Sandbox Client preview, a fix for a potentially alarming registry issue and a warning for owners of Copilot+ PCs.

The Windows Sandbox is a lightweight desktop environment in which applications can be run in isolation. It isn’t a full-blown Hyper-V virtual machine, although it does use hardware-based virtualization for kernel isolation.

It was first released as part of Windows 10, and development has continued over the succeeding years.

Now updated from the Microsoft Store, the Windows Sandbox Client preview released in this build includes runtime clipboard detection, audio and video input control, and the ability to share folders with the host at runtime.

Microsoft has added more command line support to the preview too, although it described the implementation as “super early” and warned that the switches might change over time.

After all, this is as cutting-edge as Microsoft will officially allow the public to get when it comes to Windows. As the company says, there’s no guarantee that what shows up in the Canary Channel will ever make it into the release builds. Also, as Microsoft warns, the channel can sometimes be distinctly unstable even by Windows Insider standards.

Windows Sandbox first appeared in Windows 10. It uses a copy of the host operating system, thus dispensing with the need to download a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) or fiddle around with licensing. The vision for the sandbox is to provide a way to run applications in an isolated fashion, although nothing persists between sessions.

Other bits and pieces in the release, the first in the 27xxx series, include an increase in the FAT32 limit from the command line format function from 32 GB to 2 TB and a fix for a slightly alarming issue in the Registry Editor where pasting in a HEX value into a text box might result in the value saved not being the one entered (the example given was 0x1 turning into 0x411).

There was also a warning for owners of Copilot+ PCs keen to sign up for the Canary Channel. According to Microsoft, “you will lose Windows Hello pin and biometrics to sign into your PC with error 0xd0000225 and error message ‘Something went wrong, and your PIN isn’t available.'”

The user will then have to recreate their PIN.

Welcome to the Canary Channel. ®