FAQ for Windows and macOS
- I am a student and have a problem with my exam and SEB, can you help me?
Unfortunately no. Always first contact your exam organizers (the people or organization which let you take that exam). They know the exam and the exam system they use, they hopefully set up and tested everything properly, they have configured the settings for SEB for that exam, for example the SEB Quit/Unlock password (there is no default SEB Quit password, it is always set up by the people who set up the exam. We don't know the Quit password which is used for your exam and we cannot find it out.).
SEB can be used with numerous exam systems, learning management systems or other web-based e-assessment systems. We only develop the SEB application itself (which is basically a special, kiosk/lockdown web browser). We are not responsible for any web-based systems SEB is used with and cannot give any kind of support for these systems. When you have a problem with some website you try to open in Chrome or Firefox, you also don't call or write Google or Mozilla to help you (unless you're a web developer and are sure that the browser has a bug).
SEB is completely free to use (freeware software). We develop it and provide it, without any kind of warranty. If your school, university, teacher, a company etc. decides to require SEB for your exam, THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE to help you. - SEB asks me for a quit/unlock password to quit or to close a red lock screen
If correctly set up, after submitting an exam, the exam/learning management system displays a button or link to unlock the device and quit SEB/the exam session without having to enter a SEB Quit password. Sometimes SEB displays a red lock screen, when something happens during the exam, which would make the exam insecure. Then you need to contact the exam support (your exam organizers, teacher, proctors, etc.), because they know that password. There is no default SEB Quit password, it is always set up by the people who set up the exam. We don't know the Quit password which is used for your exam and we cannot find it out. If no quit password was set up, try to just press the enter key. - I'm using a custom version of SEB (which is called differently, like <Vendor> SEB or another application name, but I know it is based on SEB) and I have a problem, can you help me?
No, you have to directly contact the vendor of that custom SEB version or application based on SEB. - IMPORTANT!!!! Help me ASAP!!!
We understand you may be under pressure and stress, so are we often. Please be polite when asking. SEB is free software, we provide it for free without any warranties. We are happy to help if we can (best-effort), but it helps if you are friendly and polite. - I give SEB a 1-star review in an App Store, then it will be removed from the store and my teacher cannot give me bad marks in the exam (those exams suck anyways)
It is not true, that an exam/education app will be removed because of a lot of 1-star reviews. Save your time, learn for your exam and complain to your teacher if you don't like the exam or that you have to use a lockdown browser for your exam.
Safe Exam Browser for Windows
- What to do if SEB doesn't react anymore/cannot be quit?
Did you try the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Q? If SEB asks for the Quit Password, you need to ask your exam support for it (see above). If SEB really cannot be quit, you need to force restart or force shutdown your computer. Consult your computer's documentation if you don't know how to force restart/shutdown (sometimes there is a hardware switch or you need to use some special keyboard shortcut, or press and hold the power button for several seconds).
After force restarting your Windows computer, sometimes the SEB Registry Resetter tool must be used. See the manual about more information.
SEB cannot "damage" your computer, software or documents. But with a force restart, you can loose unsaved changes to documents or in the worst case the file system on a hard drive/SSD needs to be repaired by Windows or other software. Always save all documents you work on before starting SEB and ideally quit applications with open documents. As always when working with any computer and any software, regularly make backups of your documents and system. - Which antivirus/anti-malware software is compatible with SEB?
See below the list of AV/anti-malware software known to work with SEB on Windows 10 (1809). The AV software tested are the most recent versions as of February 2019. Each antivirus software was tested in the free and the paid version. In either case it was used with default settings.
In our test only one product wasn't working at all together with SEB:Product Name Version Avast Free Antivirus 19.2.2364 Avast Premier 19.2.2364 Avira Free Security Suite 15.0.43.24 Avira Prime 15.0.43.24 Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 23.0.16.72 Bitdefender Internet Security 23.0.16.72 Eset NOD32 Antivirus 12.0.31.0 Eset Smart Security Premium 12.0.31.0 G Data Antivirus 25.5.2.6 G Data Total Security 25.5.2.6 Kaspersky Free 19.0.0.1088(d) McAfee Total Protection 16.0 Norton Security Deluxe 22.16.2.22 Norton Security Premium 22.16.2.22 Microsoft Defender OS Build 17763.292 Sophos Enterprise Client
Kaspersky Total Security Version 19.0.0.1088(d). When this software is installed and the Browser Exam Key check is enabled in SEB settings, then SEB displays an error message "SEB installation is corrupted" - "irregular files were found in SEB's program directory". In this case the Browser Exam Key is different than in a not manipulated SEB, which would usually prevent accessing an exam supporting the Browser Exam Key check. To prevent issues, Kaspersky Total Security must be uninstalled before an exam.
In earlier versions of Bitdefender Internet Security it was necessary to disable the feature scanning the encrypted (https) web traffic, otherwise a certificate error was displayed when starting an exam in SEB. We weren't able to reproduce this behavior in version 23.0.16.72 anymore.
Please note: "Security software" scanning all https traffic has to break the end-to-end SSL/TLS encryption (effectively performing a so called Man-In-The-Middle Attack). We strongly recommend to disable https Internet traffic scanning before any exam, as the "security software" involved can decrypt all encrypted Internet traffic between browsers and secure servers, including the exam data and answers transferred between SEB and an e-assessment server. You can prevent this to happen in SEB by embedding server certificates into your exam config and using the certificate pinning feature, see the manual. - What is SEB for Windows changing in the system?
While running, SEB changes Windows Registry settings for the options in the Windows Security Screen invoked by Ctrl-Alt-Del (for details see this section in the manual). In addition when running on Windows versions before 10, SEB stops Windows updates while it is running using a Registry setting and re-enables them when being quit (when SEB 2.1.1 or later is running on Windows 10, only the Windows Update background service is stopped and restarted when SEB is quit).
SEB remembers the values for these Registry settings which were active on the exam client computer before running SEB and resets them to the original values when exiting regularly. In case the PC would be force reset while SEB is running or SEB would crash, these Registry settings are again reset to the original values:
• when SEB is restarted once again and properly quit;
• when the computer is restarted (this doesn’t work always, depending on peculiarities of the Windows installation);
• or when uninstalling SEB
There is also a command line tool which can be used to reset those values for the unlikely case that the SEB Windows Service (a background service which is part of SEB) didn't work properly or was damaged and can't be run anymore.This tool can be found at the following directory path in your Program Files directory:
SafeExamBrowser\SebWindowsServiceWCF\SebRegistryResetter.exe
(see manual for details how to use the registry resetter tool).
When SEB is installed, the file type with the file extension .seb and the custom URL protocols seb:// and sebs:// (the latter starting SEB 2.1.1) are registered. These associations are removed when SEB is being uninstalled.
SEB also creates two directories for local SEB settings in locations which are designated in Windows for such purposes:
- C:\ProgramData\SafeExamBrowser\
Exact path using Windows environment variable:
%PROGRAMDATA%\SafeExamBrowser\
- C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\SafeExamBrowser\
Exact path using Windows environment variable:
%APPDATA%\SafeExamBrowser\
In this directory the SEB web browser also caches resources. In SEB's default settings this cached data is removed when SEB quits.
These directories and possible contents are not removed automatically when SEB is uninstalled.
- C:\ProgramData\SafeExamBrowser\
Safe Exam Browser for macOS
- What to do if SEB doesn't react anymore/cannot be quit?
Did you try the keyboard shortcut Cmd-Q? If SEB asks for the Quit Password, you need to ask your exam support for it (see first paragraph of this page). If SEB really cannot be quit, you need to force restart or force shutdown your Mac:
1. Try to press the Touch ID button (that's the power button on current Macs, other models might still have a dedicated power button) for 6 seconds, your Mac will switch off then.
2. Wait a minute or two and press the power button again, your Mac will boot up again.
3. SEB should not be started automatically. Proceed to step 5. If SEB is started automatically and you still cannot quit it, then proceed to step 4.
4. Again press the power button for 6 seconds to turn off your Mac, wait a minute, press the power button again and immediately press and hold the Shift key as your Mac starts up (this is called Safe Mode). On Macs with Apple silicon: a) Shut down your Mac. b) Turn on your Mac and continue to press and hold the power button until you see the startup options window. c) Select your startup disk, then press and hold the Shift key while clicking “Continue in Safe Mode.”
5. In macOS 14 Sonoma or later: Delete the file org.safeexambrowser.Safe-Exam-Browser.plist file in the Preferences folder. Usually the Preferences directory in the user's Library folder is used, which by default is invisible in Finder. You can use the menu command Go / Go to Folder… in Finder and enter ~/Library/Preferences there (tilde symbol: usually use option/alt - N key shortcut).
6. In macOS versions earlier than macOS 14 Sonoma :Open the Terminal app (you can use the Spotlight search icon on the upper right in your menu bar to find Terminal).Type/copy paste this text: defaults delete org.safeexambrowser.SafeExamBrowser (for SEB 2.3 and newer) or defaults delete org.safeexambrowser.Safe-Exam-Browser (SEB versions before SEB 2.3) This deletes the client configuration of the Safe Exam Browser application, so when starting it is showing the same information page like when it was installed first
7. You can do your exam again, make sure your Mac is fully charged or use a power adapter.
SEB cannot "damage" your computer, software or documents. But with a force restart, you can loose unsaved changes to documents or in the worst case the file system on a hard drive/SSD needs to be repaired by some third-party software. Always save all documents you work on before starting SEB and ideally quit applications with open documents. As always when working with any computer and any software, regularly make backups of your documents and system. - What is SEB for macOS changing in the system?
SEB doesn't perform any real changes in macOS (this is comprehensible as there is no administrator password necessary when starting SEB for macOS the first time). Depending on your macOS version, one of the following global setting (user defaults) changes can be performed, while SEB is running:- Touchbar mode (Touchbar doesn't display the App Controls, Quick Actions, Spaces modes, but the Expanded Control Strip mode)
Open System Preferences / Keyboard, re-select "Touch Bar shows: App Controls" or the mode you had set before. You have to manually select App Controls in the popup-menu, even if it looks like it is already selected. Then the Touch Bar is back to the setting you had before.
SEB normally resets the Touchbar mode when quitting to the mode you were using before. Up to macOS 10.15 Mojave, this isn't possible automatically for the App Controls mode, you then you have to select this mode again manually in the System Preferences / Keyboard pane.
Upcoming SEB versions will support the new Assessment Mode in macOS 10.15.4 and newer, where we don't need to manually switch the Touch Bar mode.
- When SEB Screen Proctoring (or the setting "Block screen shots (Legacy)") is used: The path where screen shots are saved is temporarily changed when SEB starts and set back to the user's preset when SEB is quit. If the Mac would be force restarted while SEB is running or SEB would crash, starting and quitting SEB resets the screen shot path again to the original user's preset. In the unlikely case this should ever fail, it is easy to reset this screen shot location to the system's default (the desktop folder) with the following command line in the terminal:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Desktop && killall SystemUIServer
- Touchbar mode (Touchbar doesn't display the App Controls, Quick Actions, Spaces modes, but the Expanded Control Strip mode)
Additional Resources
Please also check the following pages:
Please find support following the links below to our Sourceforge project site. The SEB team will answer your questions there.
We kindly request you to first read the SEB manuals and search the discussion board for duplicate questions before asking. You'll save us time, which we can better spend in improving SEB.
Please always mention, which SEB version and which operating system you are using (for example Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10, OS X 10.11, 10.10, 10.9, 10.8, 10.7, 10.6) and possibly other details about your system!
Otherwise we cannot answer your questions properly!