Limit Origin and other programs from accessing various things:
It turns out that there's a free version of Sandboxie that supports both 64bit and 32bit Windows. My biggest gripe was with Origin scanning the ProgramData folder however after more testing, its access can indeed be blocked by Sandboxie.
Here are the basic steps to limit Origin's access:
-Download and install the free version of Sandboxie and then run it
-Create a new sandbox called Origin
-Open command prompt and type "cd C:\ProgramData"
-Then type "dir /d"
-Copy the list of directories to an empty Notepad document and remove the Origin entry in the pasted text
-Use Edit / Replace to get rid of all "]" characters
-Use Edit / Replace to replace all "[" characters with "ClosedFilePath=C:\ProgramData\"
-Add "OpenPipePath=C:\" at the top of the document for however many normal hard drives/partitions you have on the PC (D,E,F,etc). You shouldn't need to worry as the only major thing Origin appears to access outside of EA/Origin/System related stuff is the ProgramData folder
-Copy all the text in notepad and get back to Sandboxie
-Go to Configure / Edit configuration
-While editing the opened ini file go to the very bottom of the Origin entry and paste the text underneath
-Save and close the file, Sandboxie should automatically put up a message about updating its settings
-If need be you can check the Sandbox settings in Sandboxie itself to make sure everything has been set correctly
-Run Origin through the sandbox that you created. Provided that you removed the Origin folder entry before it should execute and login just fine
There you have it; testing showed that Origin's behaviour remained the same in such an environment with the exception that it couldn't access the folders in ProgramData except its own folder.
Sandboxie can also be used for things like Punkbuster, though you should check the following page to avoid conflicts:
Sandboxie - Known Conflicts
I can't 100% garuantee this, but it does appear that after taking these steps that Origin will not access much outside system/origin/ea stuff and so your other stuff should be private. You might need to tweak the sandbox settings a bit however if you install additional programs that use ProgramData to stop Origin from accessing them.
Remember that Origin isn't the only suspect software you may have; you can use Sandbox and ProcessMonitor for other suspect programs as well.
Unless Origin gets an update that makes it more invasive I'll be willing to use Origin outside of tests at the moment, now we just have to hope that BF3 and other Origin games don't suck
zu ende,sollte für 25€ das mindeste sein.
avast haben^^
