In Windows 11 you can restart it without losing data, though, which is nice, since its so fast that it starts almost instantly. Because of that speed, I test all the funky software in it first, and some I run in it exclusivelly as you can create "run in Windows Sandbox" fairly easyly and customize what runs on startup via pwsh script.
I would love the option for it to survive the closure though, that would open entire new world of possibilities. It doesn't have to compete with full HyperV setup if you open just a few more options.
Yeah, I don't 100% trust the new CurseForge app for updating World of Warcraft addons, but it's kind of necessary when you have 10+ addons. But with some poking and a Windows Sandbox configuration file, I can just launch it in a sandbox now and mount the addons directory, update/install, and wipe the sandbox.
It's a neat Sandboxie replacement once you start playing with mounts and startup scripts.
In Windows 11 you can restart it without losing data,
So did they also fix the rather annoying issue that if you shutdown the OS in sandbox it displays a 'The connection to the sandbox was lost.' dialog instead of quitting the process? We use it to run automated tests, for which it is actually pretty great with the .wsb files makeing it easy to get data into it and run script, but it's a bit silly one needs to workaround detection of whether the thing exited by using files for signalling the script is done with a timeout then killing all involved processes.
There are various websites that resell MSDNAA keys for 2 Euros or so[1].
I got a Win11 Pro and Office 2021 Pro for dirt cheap there, the keys worked (after a phone activation IIRC), and haven't had any problems so far. Without access to such prices I would have switched to Linux and LibreOffice already as there's no way I can pay full retail prices for those.
Beware this is a legal gray area, I'm not affiliated, not endorsing this practice, and not responsible for your outcome. I assume Microsoft is aware of these practices but turns a blind eye as that just means more users into their ecosystem anyway, so why ruin the party.
I would love the option for it to survive the closure though, that would open entire new world of possibilities. It doesn't have to compete with full HyperV setup if you open just a few more options.