Forum Discussion
Turning on Windows Sandbox feature hangs
I just got a new Dell machine with Windows 11 Pro installed on it. I wanted use the machine with Virtual Machines as well as Windows Sandbox feature. When I enable Hyper-V feature, the reboot works fine. After than when I enable Windows Sandbox feature, it reboots and goes to a screen with “Customizing feature for you. You’re 100% there. Please keep your computer on.” And then freezes there. Dell says this is software issue and will have to pay for the support. I just got this machine and not so happy that I’m running into this. Only way for me to get out of this is reinstall the OS.
I really need the Windows Sandbox feature. That is the main reason for buying a machine with Windows 11 Pro.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks
Surya
8 Replies
This is a common Windows virtualization setup issue, not a hardware failure.
Before reinstalling Windows, try these quick fixes:
1. Check BIOS settings
Make sure VT-x/AMD-V and VT-d/IOMMU are enabled. Use UEFI, not Legacy boot.2. Enable all required Windows features together
In Windows Features, enable:- Hyper-V
- Windows Sandbox
- Virtual Machine Platform
- Windows Hypervisor Platform
3. Update BIOS and chipset drivers
Do this from Dell’s support site, not Windows Update.4. Temporarily turn off Memory Integrity
Windows Security → Device security → Core isolation → Memory integrity → OFF
Reboot, then enable Sandbox again.5. Enable Sandbox first, Hyper-V second
The order sometimes matters and avoids the “stuck at 100%” issue.If it still freezes, an in-place repair install of Windows 11 (using the ISO) usually fixes it without wiping your data.
Same problem.
My Windows Sandbox works perfect. But recently after start get strange "vmmemcmfirstboot" process memory and CPU usage. I disabled Hyper-V, Windows Hypervisor Platform, Virtual Machine Platform, Windows Sandbox and it helps but now I cant enable it again. Windows Sandbox stuck at 100%.
Have you finad any solution?
I also have a Dell Pro Tower T2 with Windows 11, and I had the exact same issue. I was able to resolve it without having to re-install Windows.
On another computer I used the Windows 11 media creation tool available on the Microsoft website to create a bootable USB drive. I booted to that drive and started a Windows repair and I got to the Windows Recovery Environment and started a command prompt. Then this command disabled the Sandbox feature.
dism /Image:C:\ /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:"Containers-DisposableClientVM"After that I shut it down and rebooted and it came back up normally. Hope this helps someone else with this issue. This won't get Sandbox to work but at least the machine is usable again.
I have a brand new Dell Pro Tower T2 with Windows 11 Pro and have the same problem. Ended up having to reinstall windows. No AI help suggestions helped. Still can't use Sandbox.
Hi. Having same problem installing Sandbox on Dell Tower Plus. Same symptoms. I used commands on command line and finally got it installed only to find out that then my computer would freeze after several minutes. I removed Sandbox and things seemed to go back to "normal". However I have not been able to install Sandbox from the UI without getting stuck at 100%. Did you ever find a solution?
Thanks
I have a couple year old Dell laptop, and exact same thing happening to me. I tried advanced recovery and rolling back feature updates didn't work and rolling back the security update didn't help the problem. I'm getting close to reinstalling the OS...
