Is there a way to use USB devices directly in Windows Sandbox? So far I only found the workaround e.g. for flash drives mounting them via the host by using <Hostfolder>E:\</Hostfolder> in the configuration file. This workaround leads to other problems, e.g. does not work on the fly.
Is there a better method?
Any suggestions that work for all kinds of USB devices (e.g. WLAN adapters) are preferred. I'm using Windows 11 including the latest updates.
This question was posted on various sites. For example on Redit
Can I give Windows Sandbox access to USB devices?
The answer in that post by a Microsoft Software Engineer was :
We don't currently support this - but there has been discussion around supporting USB device redirection. A standard virtual machine may be the best approach if you need something in the near term. Thanks!
The approach of using your own Windows virtual machine requires its creation, activation, and copying it if you would like to start from scratch from time to time.
This approach will work, but is very heavy to set up.
If your main concern is about security, a good-enough solution is using the open-source and free Sandboxie Plus.
Sandboxie will isolate your sessions from Windows, so that whatever you do inside its sandbox does not affect the operating system. Its sandbox is persistent, so you don't have to start from scratch after each reboot. Deleting the contents of the sandbox in effect undoes everything that you did inside it.
