Microsoft Corp. will introduce a native virtualization service for Windows 10 as part of an upcoming operating system release slated to arrive next year.

The technology, which the company detailed today, is set to ship under the name Sandbox. It will enable users to safely open unknown or suspicious applications in a virtual environment isolated from the rest of the operating system. When a Sandbox instance is closed, it shuts down the application inside and reverts all changes so there’s no lasting impact on the computer.

The service differs from traditional desktop virtualization products. It incorporates certain principles associated with software containers, a resource-efficient alternative to traditional virtualization that’s currently experiencing rapid adoption in the enterprise.

Both technologies work by splitting off a machine’s hardware resources into high-level, abstracted environments that can run different workloads in parallel with one another. But containers accomplish the task with considerably less overhead. Whereas a virtual machine functions as a sort of self-contained computer, a container shares key operating system components with other instances.

Sandbox takes the same basic approach. Instances created with the service share most of their files with the underlying operating system, instead of using a dedicated Windows 10 image like virtual machines do. Removing the need to spin up a full Windows 10 copy for every virtualized application frees up a considerable amount of hardware resources. 

The upcoming Windows 10 release that will include the service is also set to bring another new security capability called Tamper Protection. According to Microsoft, the feature will enable the Windows Defender Antivirus to limit changes to important security settings.

The other upcoming enhancements focus mainly on the operating system’s interface. Microsoft will overhaul the Startup menu with a simpler one-column design, make the clipboard more compact and add new emojis.

Microsoft’s decision to bring containerlike features to Windows 10 falls in step with the strategy it’s pursuing on the server side. Earlier this month, the company partnered with container pioneer Docker Inc. to develop a better way of running the technology on its Azure cloud platform and on-premises data centers. Enterprises are adopting containers en masse because they make it possible to deploy applications in a lightweight, efficient format that can be easily moved among different kinds of infrastructure.

Image: Michael Kappel/Flickr