First I'd like to say I am not a user of Sandboxie (i.e. free user). I paid for a license so I am a customer. I also convinced over the years for others to purchase licenses because I believe Sandboxie (at least until recently) was as important if not more important than anti-virus programs to protect a computer from Online infections. Now I have these people coming to me wanting solutions to the problems Sandboxie has created recently after years of excellent operation.
Second I'd like to say I have worked with Sophos for years supporting Corporate level Sophos solutions. My opinion has not been good of their support, service, and fix rollout. I was greatly concerned when Sophos acquired Sandboxie and it seems my concerns have been realized.
Third I'd like to say that Sophos telling us customers that a "bug" has broken their system is actually non-speak especially after running without issues for years. From my years of experience in IT I can guess 1) Their site was hacked or infected, 2) Their Sandboxie app has been compromised, 3) They have found a bug in Sandboxie that has allowed the licensing server to be compromised or abused (loss of revenue), 4) Sophos is trying to migrate Sandboxie to their infrastructure and it was a failure breaking Sandboxie licensing and functionality.
To fix the problem they now are forcing us (yes forcing because we cannot say No) to a broken version of Sandboxie v5.30. But how can we customer trust Sophos and Sandboxie any longer with such vague explanation and poor actions taken these last couple of weeks.
Sandboxie 5.30 does not work properly with Internet Explorer under Windows 8.1 fully patched. Running this version I find many site links no longer work (especially download links). My email site just spins and never opens. It runs slightly slower and sluggish (and NO my computer is not infected). But if I run outside of Sandboxie or go back to Sandboxie v5.28 everything works fine (until I get the forced upgrade to v5.30 messages.)
I am a paid user and expect a working product. Sophos, don't force me to upgrade to a version that may fix YOUR licensing problem but makes the product unusable for me.
I think it is time we get the trade sites like ZDNET, etc. involved so they can warn everyone of this failure of a once excellent product and maybe put pressure on Sophos to be more forthcoming. Considering the silence from Sophos is deafening on what they are doing to fix this broken Sandboxie other than forcing us to upgrade to another broken version of the product, I think we customer are entitled to a clearer explanation, a timeline for actually reissuing a fully working version of Sandboxie, and a sincere apology from Sophos for the troubles caused its customers. If Sophos is not willing or capable of these actions then I think it is time to start talking full refunds.
