ExamN Browser

Why is it useful?

This is a custom web browser used in university medical schools as part of the eMedley learning management system (LMS). It blocks access to all other applications to temporarily convert the PC into a locked-down, kiosk-like environment for online examinations. It only permits access to the eMedley online examination web app. (Respondus LockDown Browser and Moodle Safe Exam Browser are similar products from other LMS providers.)

Who would benefit from it?

Patch My PC's university customers that subscribe to eMedley LMS will benefit by more easily delivering this app to students on university-owned devices (and even personally-owned devices with Intune). At my university, medical students are provided with a laptop for the duration of their enrollment, and IT fully manages the devices with Intune. Students do not have administrative rights on their PCs, so they cannot install this software themselves; therefore, IT must deliver it via Intune.

How should it work?

On Windows, the vendor seems to only make the latest version available. The download website is https://he.emedley.com/downloads, and the link to the setup program (as I am writing this) is https://he.emedley.com/gen/public/examn_v2/examn_browser/setup-x64.zip. I don't know if this link changes over time. The setup program (setup.exe) is built with Inno Setup (https://jrsoftware.org/isinfo.php), and it downloads and installs "Visual C++ 2019 64-bit Redistributable" as needed. I have attached a series of screen capture images showing the installation wizard with all defaults accepted.

I use this installation command in my Intune Win32 app:

setup.exe /VERYSILENT /NORESTART /RESTARTEXITCODE=3010 /FORCECLOSEAPPLICATIONS /LOG /MERGETASKS="!desktopicon"

I have never seen a PC restart be required, but I use /NORESTART to prevent it just in case, and then use /RESTARTEXITCODE to return the same exit code that Windows Installer uses to indicate that a reboot is needed. Without that switch, the installer returns 0 for success whether or not a reboot is needed. (Additional exit codes are here: https://jrsoftware.org/ishelp/topic_setupexitcodes.htm.) The remaining switches write a log in %TEMP% and prevent the desktop icon from being created.

My uninstallation command in my Intune Win32 app is:

"%ProgramFiles%\examN Browser\unins000.exe" /VERYSILENT /NORESTART /RESTARTEXITCODE=3010 /FORCECLOSEAPPLICATIONS /LOG

I have included a screen capture of the app's properties page in Intune for reference.

This application writes data into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{C70C00AC-9AEE-42AE-96D3-8E102BD6EB9D}_is1 for use by the Programs and Features Control Panel applet, but it does not differentiate between versions. That same key and the values within it were the same for the last three versions (7.9.8, 7.9.9, and 8.0.0). I had to resort to using a file detection rule that checks the time stamp of the "browser.exe" file. I have included a screen capture of that as well.

I obtained the app icon from the vendor's website as an SVG file and converted it to PNG. That file is included as well.