Using Sandboxie for Idling

I've been rather unhappy lately using virtualization to idle TF2 accounts. My frustrations have been building as I run into more and more problems.

My laundry list..

• Tedious setting up each VM/Account.
• Lack of responsiveness in the host computer while running numerous accounts.
• Memory issues in x86

Its really the second problem that irritates me the most. I've been limited to 2-3 VMs running in the background when actively at my computer, and only 2 max if I want to play a game. This is slightly unacceptable.

Enter, Sandboxie. A windows sandbox utility similar to Solaris Zones, or FreeBSD jail. In short, it allows you to run a program inside it's own environment in such a way that it cannot interact in a meaninful way with the rest of the operating system. In TF2 terms.. you can run multiple copys of Steam and TF2 without the overhead of a Virtual Machine.

If you've worked with sandboxing, vms or anything similar this should come easily to you. Just think of a sandbox as a virtual machine and you're golden.

Quick setup guide:

1. Copy/Paste your steam folder. You'll need all the TF2 GFCs and relevant files. (One copy per account you want to run at a time. If you want to run 3 at a time, you'll need copies.
2. Create a new sandbox in Sandboxie, name it easy to find. Make one per account for bookkeeping purposes  (idle1, idle2, idle3, etc for example)
3. Go into the sandbox settings, Resource Access -> File Access -> Direct Access and add the Steam folder you just copied over. Like this...
   
   
4. Right click the sandbox, run program windows explorer.
5. Navigate to the Steam folder you just copied and run Steam.exe
6. Allow steam to update.
7. Add proprieties for idling in the game settings.
8. Launch TF2.

Pretty simple no?

Sandboxie can be useful for other things as well, including web browsing, and running suspect programs/games without needing a VM. (VMs are still safer in this regard)