e-EQE 2022: Avoiding FLOWlock Browser crashes, and how to get out

Updated 15 Mar 22 to add blurry assignment preview
Updated 14 Mar 22 to add frozen chat window problem.
Updated 10 Mar 22 to clarify that you must print before starting FLOWlock Browser and added about backup computer. Updated 9 Mar 22 to specify Refresh icon appearance (clockwise arrow). See comments in blue for important points from EPO info session on 8 Feb 22. Updated 7 Feb 22 with comment about asking for extra time and updated FAQs. Updated 4 Feb 22 after comments and new Instructions to Candidates (see separate post).

This is an updated post, taking into account the improvements to FLOWlock browser (old name: LockDown Browser) and the experiences during the Mocks. I tried many different ways of crashing the browser to check whether the comments are still valid. The LockDown / FLOWlock Browser version used was 2.0.7.07 - 29 Sep 2021. I have only tested this on my Windows 10 - let me know if anything is missing, particularly for Mac's. 

Before exam:

• Don't be passive and just accept problems & unclarities - report them to helpdesk@eqe.org. They can get an idea of the scale of problems, and can prioritise any fixes or messages, and find about new issues. Also, if have already recorded your problem ("all due care"-like), and it happens again during the actual exam, there is some evidence
• Read the official docs here: eEQE page (www.epo.org/learning/eqe/e-eqe.html), FAQ's page (www.epo.org/learning/eqe/faq.html) and EQE notices and downloads (www.epo.org/learning/eqe/notices.html) before the exam. Many issues are already covered and they are updated regularly. 
• If you are having problems, check the WISEflow list of computer recommendations (epo-wiseflow.ladesk.com/772936-Lockdown-computer-recommendations), and user guides / troubleshooting (wiseflow.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb/categories/4405644298386-Participant). They have a page dedicated to Webcam Troubleshooting (wiseflow.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4406047192466-Webcam-Troubleshooting) and to Lockdown Browser Troubleshooting (wiseflow.zendesk.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4406002375314-WISEflow-Lockdown-Browser-Troubleshooting)
• Whitelist access to "*.wiseflow.net" and "www.epo.org" domains

Hardware / Software

• Equipment that has worked once well during mocks will almost certainly should work during actual exam. Backup laptop or computer should not be needed. 
• Consider a backup system: no problems during mocks is no guarantee that everything will run smoothly. If you are nervous, prepare a backup system (you can also use this to print before the exam - see below). This second computer must be turned off and completely out of reach in the room during the exam. Borrow a computer to which you can have full administrator privileges. The recommended technical specs are very low. Or ask your IT department if they have an old one that they can reset and give you administrator privileges.  
• FLOWlock browser does not work like normal software - it is continuously trying to crash. Anything it considers suspicious will either be stopped, or will cause the browser to exit. System notifications or pop-up windows can also cause freezing. If in front of browser, you may not be able to click on them. If behind (invisible), you cannot navigate to them using ALT-TAB.  If behind, you also do not know what the cause is. 
  
• It is strongly advised NOT to do exam from office using a company computer on a company network
• Most of the problems with crashing and missing functionality is due to using a company computer or laptop where you don't have full admin rights and you can't disable scheduled tasks or other company tools. For example, critical urls can be blocked, IP addresses can be changed during the exam, virus scans and windows updates can start during the exam, screensavers/hibernation can be triggered by periods of inactivity (eg reading) during the exam. In addition, further restrictions may be imposed by the company network when at your workplace.
• Better is to buy a refurbished / 2nd-hand used desktop PC for EUR 60-70, and to use that with administrator privileges. The recommended technical specs are very low. Or borrow one from someone else. Or ask your IT department if they have an old one that they can reset windows and give you administrator privileges.  
• You will have the least chance of technical issues if you use a dedicated desktop with one screen (at least 27 inch), one camera, one microphone, one keyboard, one mouse, one loudspeaker device, one printer, direct wired (USB/HDMI) connections to all peripherals, administrator access, cabled (LAN) access. The chances of problems are further reduced by connecting to a non-company network. 
• If using a laptop with USB external camera, set it up so that the laptop screen can be turned off and closed (only 1 screen/monitor may be used).
• Only connect the hardware you need, and exit all software/apps except your normal internet browser. Also those running in the background, like backup software and synchronization programs (onedrive, dropbox etc). For Windows, I recommend creating a new account with adminstrator privileges to be sure that you are only running what you need.
• Avoid using port replicators and docking stations. FLOWlock Browser disables "suspicious" processes on startup. Some people have had problems starting, and/or disconnection problems. This might be due to using a modern hub with more than one video output. Solution: use a simple USB-hub with only what you need.
  
• To test your camera in WISEflow, click on the drop down menu next to your name and select "Edit profile" and Start FLOWlock to start the FLOWlock Browser. In the Assignment Options, click on "Appendix material" and "Manage appendices" to open the "Appendix manager" tab. In the "Appendix manager" tab, click on "New appendix", and then "Take an image". This looks like the "Entry image" screen used before each exam / flow. Unfortunately, there is no microphone test.
• Avoid VPN. Can lead to slow connections. FLOWlock Browser also cannot handle changes in your IP address.
• You can set up your phone as a mobile hotspot to use in emergencies, but your phone cannot be within reach during the exam. Your computer has to be set up to automatically switch, or you need to use CTRL-ALT-DELETE to switch manually (see below).

Disabling functions before the exam

Click on READ MORE >> for more details

• Disable all screensavers, hibernation modes and power savers - do not allow the display, hard disk etc to be turned off after a period of inactivity. Inactivity is most likely on Paper C where you have a lot on paper to read, but on some systems screens are turned off after 10 minutes.
• DO NOT USE any shortcut or command allowing other applications to be opened, going to another desktop, going to another application, trying to change system settings etc. FLOWlock browser treats such key combinations as suspicious, and will lock you out of the exam if they are pressed twice. If tripped, you will need to request the invigilator password from the chat widget, costing you 10-15 mins and much unwanted stress.
• DO NOT USE: ALT-TAB, WINKEY-L, WINKEY-M, WINKEY-P, WINKEY-R, WINKEY-X. These combinations cannot be disabled using software, so you have to block them mechanically. If you have a USB keyboard, you may be able to take off the TAB, ALT and/or Winkey cap. William Salinger figured out last year that it is very easy to stick a small piece of plastic or card (eg from a business card) under the keys you want to block (see picture above). See below for key combinations that can be useful and are allowed are less likely to give issues before you decide what to block.
• If you have a touchpad in Windows, disable the settings allowing 3 or 4 finger gestures to be disabled for a touchpad

Log-in early

• ItC IV.4: log-in 60 mins BEFORE the first flow on each exam day. 
• Recommended to do this - it will give you extra time to sort out any problems before the exam, and to prepare your room and desk. It is also a safety margin if you have to travel to take the exam. After clicking on the correct exam flow, you enter the flow page, where you can print any documents and start the FLOWlock Browser.
• Print BEFORE starting the FLOWlock Browser: 10 minutes before the start of the exam, any printable documents will appear on the flow page. Click on the refresh icon (clockwise arrow) or press F5 to see them. 
• Early camera check: It is possible to start the FLOWlock/LockDown Browser in the flow page up to 60 minutes before the exam to test your camera and microphone by performing the ID check. If you do not need to print, you can just stay in the Browser, waiting for the exam to start. 
• If you need to print using that computer, you must exit the Browser, restart your internet browser, log back in to WISEflow, and enter the flow page again. You will also need to perform the ID check again whey you restart the FLOWlock Browser.
• It is also possible to print using a second computer logged into WISEflow, but this second computer must be turned off and out of reach during the exam.

Official help during the exam

• Make a hard copy of the participation password, the epo helpdesk number and your candidate number and keep it on your table during the exam.
• Easiest and quickest way to reach an invigilator is through the chat widget in the editor tab of FLOWlock Browser. Request will be acknowledged within 15 minutes after receipt. Answer time depends on complexity of issue. Do not close the chat before you have received an answer - if you do, you will be opening a new chat. You can minimise the window with "-". The chat remains active when you are on another tab.
• If your system has crashed and you are not in FLOWlock browser, you can log-in via WISEflow from any standard internet browser, and start the flow again. The chat widget will appear when the entry image is requested. This is before you are prompted for passwords etc, so you can request assistance.
• If you are logging into WISEflow on a different system, you will first have to download and install FLOWlock (LockDown) Browser. 
• Only in emergencies and if the chat widget is not available, call the epo helpdesk: +49 89 2399 5155. Telephone lines are very limited - the chat widget is strongly recommended. Communication via email will not be dealt with.
• I realise it will be stressful, but please be respectful to the invigilators 🙏. It is not easy to diagnose problems remotely and there may be different escalation levels they have to go through. 
• If appropriate for the issue, ask politely for more time in the chat. This is technically possible (they did give extra time for everyone for D1-1), but I don't know what the EQE policy is. I have not heard of any EQE2021 requests being granted in individual cases, but it does give them a chance to compensate in some way. Whatever the outcome of the extra time request, focus on the rest of the exam, and finish as much as possible to give them something to mark. 
• If you can, click on the link to request a transcript of the chat before the chat ends. After the exam, send the EQE helpdesk a report about the problems that you had. They will take everything into account, but not all issues will result in extra marks.

AI monitoring during the exam:

• Put a Do Not Disturb sign on your door to avoid anyone coming into the room. You must be alone. If someone comes in by accident, send them out immediately - type a short comment in the chat widget, and report it in detail after the exam. Our Do Not Disturb notices also include full schedules for the exams, including the breaks.
• During each part of the exam where unscheduled breaks are not allowed, you need to stay in front of the camera - in other words, keep your face and ears within camera view, and don't talk or make noises.
• The AI monitoring does not automatically generate warnings if you move your face out of view or speak. Your camera and microphone are sampled, and the invigilators have a dashboard with the real time status. For example, the degree of facial recognition is monitored. If one of them is "zero" or "low" (e.g. if you move too much), you should go to the top of the list, and they may contact you. The software also tries to determine whether there are multiple voices speaking in your room. This was not tested during the Mocks.
• Not being contacted does not mean that everything you did was acceptable. After the exam, this data is combined with other inputs in your profile. It is used afterwards to determine whether suspicious behaviour is suspected. The AI will generate a list of possible suspicious behaviour, which will be further analysed by people. It is the people who make the decisions.
• Do your best to comply with the spirit and letter of the regulations and instructions, and you should have no problem. However, as the AI infers behaviour based upon limited sampling, you should document you room and workspace - see my separate post here about the Instructions and Creating your own evidence.

Key combinations that can / should be used

• Officially (ItC II.5, 6), candidates are not allowed to use shortcuts (ALT+TAB, CTRL+P or similar), key combinations and touchpad gestures, except Ctrl+C, CTRL+V, CTRL+Shift+V, CTRL+F (and the corresponding Mac shortcuts). These are the only shortcuts guaranteed not to crash the LockDown (FLOWlock) browser. This is a very safe list. 
• If you are using annotation/highlighting in an exam PDF tab, you need to disable annotation before using copy/paste.

• Below are the shortcuts that I have tested this year, but be aware that the sensitivity of each computer can be different. You need to determine yourself the degree of risk that you are willing to take. Mechanically blocking ALT and WINKEY should be considered to prevent accidents.
• Browser shortcuts that work on my Win10: SHIFT+LEFT MOUSE (open in new tab), F5 (refresh - or use icon), ALT ← & ALT → (backward & forward - or use icon), SPACE or PAGE DOWN (scroll down), SHIFT+SPACE or PAGE UP (scroll up), HOME & END (top & bottom of page), jump to pdf bookmarks using toolbar icon, CTRL+SCROLL MOUSE (zoom - or use icon, or (i) options). 
• CTRL-A, B, C, F, I, U, V, X, Y, Z worked as expected. Also CTRL-SHIFT-V worked, which allows pasting without format. 
• CTRL-F (search in page) does not work in either a html or pdf tab when opened through External References. It is possible to use Advanced Search to find useful pages, but once you open the page, you cannot search further in page.
• TAB / SHIFT-TAB can be used to change bullet indent positions in your answer. So you will only have one indent available. But that is enough for the exam - don't try and make the formatting too nice. Use "-", "=", or space if you want to show a difference.
• CTR-ALT-DELETE - (can take several seconds to respond). FLOWlock Browser reduces options normally available. ONLY use this to select different network or keyboard at bottom right. 
• DON'T select LOCK SCREEN (= same as using WINKEY-L). You will crash the browser.
• DON'T turn on the EASE OF ACCESS Options - the Narrator will be picked up as a foreign voice by the AI monitoring. DON'T turn on Filter Keys - it disables certain keys, but you can only turn it off by pressing the Right Shift button for 8 seconds. 
  
• CTRL ↑ and ↓ to jump between paragraphs. CTRL ← and → to jump between words. CTRL-SHIFT ← and → to move text selection to end of earlier/next word. CTRL-SHIFT ↑ and ↓ to move text selection to end of earlier/next paragraph. SHIFT ↑ and ↓ or SHIFT-END to move text selection to end of line. PG UP, PG DN, HOME and END or CTRL-HOME and CTRL-END - jump to next page top or bottom of answer
• WINKEY-SPACE changes keyboard layout 
• update 4 Feb 22: some candidates reported the FLOWlock Browser freezing when they used it
• be careful with other WINKEY commands - see above
• WINKEY +, WINKEY - for Magnifier 
• WINKEY . opens emoji keyboard 😲. Could be useful to help you navigate long answer, or to mark something to finish later. Don't use as part of your answer - it is not retained after conversion.
• <joke> For the chat widget? 🚻🚽. As abbreviations? 🧯 (removal of cause of non-compliance), 💣 (undisclosed disclaimer), 💡 (inventive step), 📆 (working day), 💉 (first medical indication), 💳 (opposition fee paid by credit card) </joke>

Troubleshooting during the exam

• First option to try:  REFRESH (click on icon or use F5). This will solve a lot of the problems. The refresh icon is the "clockwise arrow" at the top left between X and (i). 
• Network problems:  A warning will appear in the Browser, telling you to keep working. The FLOWlock Browser is pretty robust at dealing with this, so the best option is to wait and hope that the problem corrects itself. FLOWlock browser will generate a pop-up window, and you can continue working until the network connection is restored.
• If you have another network available, press CTRL-ALT-DELETE and click on the Network icon. Go back to FLOWlock browser as quickly as possible. Don't click on LOCK SCREEN or the other EASE OF ACCESS OPTIONS (see above) 
• Blurry assignment preview: many candidates have reported this problem. The assignment preview window is the only possibility in FLOWlock to allow side-by-side comparison, so the blurriness makes this unusable. The official guidance received from the helpdesk, both during the mocks and during exams, is to not use the preview window, or that it was due to the individual system.
• a solution reported in the Telegram groups was to adjust the text zoom ratio in WINDOWS/ Display Settings to 125% before starting the FLOWlock Browser. 
• Note that this WINDOWS setting cannot be set or reset during the exam. 
• The zoom level of the FLOWlock Browser and all the tabs can be set during the exam using the selection menu which appears when the (i) icon in the top left is clicked.
• It is also possible to separately change the zoom level of an assignment tab using CTRL+SCROLL MOUSE, or the (-) and (+) buttons in the assignment tab toolbar. Zoom settings can also be set directly by clicking on the arrow next to the percentage in the assignment tab toolbar.
• It is only possible to separately change the zoom level of the answer tab using CTRL+SCROLL MOUSE.
• Camera disconnection: many candidates had problems with the camera turning off after some time during the exam (entry image and initial testing by FLOWlock Browser were all done successfully). It is not clear why this happens, but it often happens with company laptops where you do not have administrator privileges. 
• The FLOWlock Browser may not generate an error or warning. The invigilators will be alerted to a blank image capture by the camera.  If you notice the camera is off (e.g. the LED turns off), try first to REFRESH (click on "clockwise arrow" icon or use F5). 
• Chat window freezes: many people found after a crash (and logging in again) that chat window remained open in the "Calling representative" or "Contacting invigilation" mode. There was no way to stop it, move it, or to contact an invigilator. This meant that it was not possible to request an unscheduled break, for example, or to report any other issues. At least one person had to waste more time calling the EQE helpdesk telephone number (which has very limited capacity) to get back in because the chat was frozen. 
  • helpdesk suggested refreshing - the refresh icon is the "clockwise arrow" at the top left between X and (i). F5 should also work (at least in Windows).
  • if it still does not work, continue working on your exam. If you need to contact the helpdesk, call +49 89 2399 5155 (helpdesk numberwith very limited capacity).

Unauthorised action with touchpad and/or keyboard

• The first time a suspicious action is detected, a warning is given.
• The second time a suspicious action is detected, the FLOWlock Browser is disabled, and a pop-up window appears, requiring the invigilator password to continue.
• You may know the key combinations that you pressed, but it can happen that something was activated in your software which also triggered the disabling of the FLOWlock Browser. 
• If the chat widget is visible, then enter the chat, report what happened and request the invigilator password. It can take 10-15 minutes to obtain this depending on how busy they are. Once you have the password, WRITE IT DOWN and enter it into the pop-up window to continue. The invigilator may also give you specific instructions what to do with the password and whether you can use it again. (Update 4 Feb 22: Permission is granted to use only once. If you need to use it again, you must ask again.) All uses of the password are registered in your monitored data log which is retained by the invigilators. You may not share it.

FLOWlock Browser freezes or crashes

• If your system has crashed and you are not in FLOWlock browser, you can log-in via WISEflow from any standard internet browser, and start the flow again. 
• If the FLOWlock Browser freezes, there is no pop-up message but the chat widget is visible, then enter the chat, report what happened and request assistance. If you are given the invigilator password, WRITE IT DOWN. It is possible to close FLOWlock Browser by clicking on "i in a circle" (i) logo which appears at on each tab. There is a button "Proctor Exit" in the pop-up window. Click on this and enter the password to close the FLOWlock Browser. You are back in the desktop, so you can log in again to WISEflow.
• If the FLOWlock Browzer freezes, and there no chat widget visible, then you will probably need to reboot the computer. The FLOWlock Browser is continously making backups of your answer, so this software procedure is usually safe. Go to your Windows lock screen using either WINKEY-L or CTRL-ALT-DELETE & LOCK SCREEN. The mouse does not work, so use space to see the buttons and icons. At the bottom right is the on/off logo - one of the options is to reboot. Ignore the warning about losing data. After reboot you are back in desktop, so you can log in again to WISEflow.
• If everything is unresponsive, your last resort is to press the hardware reset/reboot button. 
• Log-in to WISEflow from any standard internet browser, and starting the flow again. The chat widget will appear before you are prompted for passwords etc, so you can request assistance. You will normally need the participation and invigilator passwords to get back into the exam. You will need to retake the entry picture. 
• Your exam answer should still be there. If not, check the saved versions in the FLOWlock Browser to see if the earlier versions are more complete. If required, you can restore an earlier version and continue. 
• In case of problems saving or handing in, contact the invigilators. Submission/hand in of a completed answer can be arranged after the exam is finished via the invigilators.