Abstract: A secure computing environment that prevents malicious code from “illegitimately” interacting with programs and data residing on the computing platform. While the various embodiments restrict certain programs to operate in a virtualized environment, such operation is transparent to the user from the operational point of view. Moreover, any program operating in the virtualized environment is made to believe that it has full access to all of the computing resources. To prevent a user from unknowingly or inadvertently allowing the program to adversely affect the computer, the user is also presented with “feel” that the program is able to perform all operations in the computing environment.

Abstract: A method that protects computer data from untrusted programs. Each computer's object and process is assigned with trust attributes, which define the way it can interact with other objects within the system. When an object is classified as untrusted, it can interact with other object within the system on a limited basis. A virtualized system is provided on the computer so that when the untrusted object attempts to perform an operation that is outside its scope of authorization, the virtualized system intercepts the operation but present the untrusted program with an indication that the requested operation has been performed. The method further includes processes to securely move a program from an untrusted group to a trusted group.