ZoneAlarm has released the beta version of their private browsing addon called ForceField that allows you to run Internet Explorer and Firefox in a virtualized sandbox environment, thus protecting the host computer against any trojans, viruses and browser exploits. The software creates a virtual file system and a virtual Windows registry and then hooks into the Windows kernel to redirect calls to the virtualization engine.

The idea is simple- while the software is running anything that you do in your web browser, including downloading files, happens in a virtualized environment. Only trusted files are allowed to be installed on the physical PC. When you close the browser window, all related data including cookies, history and malware is destroyed.

This application is useful if you are surfing the internet at a public computer. When you leave the machine, no trace of your browsing session is left behind.

Key features of ZoneAlarm Forcefield include:

+ Signature and heuristic-based antiphishing
+ Dangerous download detector: a tool that checks downloaded files for possible malware
+ Antikeylogger and anti-screengrabber
+ Blacklist based website clocker

Download Zonealarm Forcefield for Windows Vista and XP here