A computer-implemented method for executing a software application in a virtual machine executing on a data processing device includes receiving software code for a software application, determining application programming interfaces referenced by the software code, determining portions of an operating system accessed by the software code and creating an application container in the virtual machine. The method also includes application programming interfaces referenced by the software code inside the application container, portions of the operating system accessed by the software code inside the application container and executing the software application inside the application container on the virtual machine.