Respondus LockDown Browser is a custom web browser for Windows and Mac computers and a Chrome browser extension for newer Chromebooks that locks down the testing environment within D2L. LockDown Browser prevents students from printing, copy/pasting, viewing other web pages, or accessing other applications while testing. Once an assessment is started in LockDown Browser students are locked into it until the assessment is submitted for grading. Please note: This information is intended for students of Great Falls College Montana State University. If you are a student of another college, university, or school that uses Respondus LockDown Browser, please either contact your school’s Information Technology Department or Respondus with any questions, concerns, or support issues related to Respondus LockDown Browser.

To install the LockDown Browser, you can click on the link that says, “[Download Respondus LockDown Browser]”, on the quiz details page, or by visiting https://download.respondus.com/lockdown/download.php?id=964616552.. Clicking the link will open a new browser tab or window with information about LockDown Browser and a button that says "Install". Click on the "Install" button to begin. If you are on a Windows or Mac computer, the web browser you are using will determine how you proceed from this point. Some browsers give you the option to “run” or “save” the download and some only give you the option to save. If you get an option to “run” it, select that option. Otherwise, click “save”, go to your “Downloads” folder to locate a file that has a title that starts with LockDownSFX, and double-click on it to start the installation. Mac users will also need to download the file to their “Downloads” folder and double-click on it to begin the installation.    PCs and Macs When the installer begins, click on the button marked, “Install LockDown Browser”. Select your language and click “Next”. Read and accept the terms of the license agreement and click “Next”. Click “Finish”. LockDown Browser should now be installed. If you encountered any problems during the installation, please contact the eLearning Department for help.  Chromebooks If you are installing the LockDown Browser on a personally owned Chromebook, you will be taken to the Chrome extensions page to install the browser extension. Please note: You cannot search the Chrome extensions store for LockDown Browser, you can only reach the installation page by using the link listed above or by going to the quiz details page and clicking on the download link there.  Now that you have LockDown Browser installed, this article will help you understand how to use it.  Please note: This information is intended for students of Great Falls College Montana State University. If you are a student of another college, university, or school that uses Respondus LockDown Browser, please either contact your school’s Information Technology Department or Respondus with any questions, concerns, or support issues related to Respondus LockDown Browser. 

Did your Responus LockDown Browser download/install file have the right file extension? Windows users should have downloaded a file that ends with .exe. Mac users should have downloaded a file that ends with .pkg. Some security programs automatically change an executable file's extension from .exe to something else when you download them to your computer. This may prevent the installation wizard from opening and installing your program. This problem can be fixed by manually changing the file extension back to .exe. After the extension is changed back, the installation wizard should be able to run and install the program. Mac Users: Do you get a "Cannot Configure Application Properties" message? Mac users may encounter a 'Cannot Configure Application Properties' error message when attempting to finish teh installation. If this occurs, try the following: Run the downloaded installer again. At the "Select a Destination" page of the installer, make sure the bottom part of the page shows "Destination folder: Applications." If the bottom part of the page is blank, click on the "Macintosh HD" icon on the top of the page to make the destination folder appear. Please note: This information is intended for students of Great Falls College Montana State University. If you are a student of another college, university, or school that uses Respondus LockDown Browser, please either contact your school’s Information Technology Department or Responduswith any questions, concerns, or support issues related to Respondus LockDown Browser.

If you see a prompt to update Respondus LockDown Browser on your computer when you open the program, you will need to update LockDown Browser before you can successfully take your test. To update, simply follow the prompts that appear on your screen or follow the instructions listed in the section above titled "How do I install Respondus LockDown Browser?" to download and install the newest version. Please note: This information is intended for students of Great Falls College Montana State University. If you are a student of another college, university, or school that uses Respondus LockDown Browser, please either contact your school’s Information Technology Department or Responduswith any questions, concerns, or support issues related to Respondus LockDown Browser.

Respondus Lockdown Browser must be launched from your normal browser. If you open the Lockdown Browser application directly, you will not be able to access Brightspace or your quizzes/exams.  If you are having trouble with opening LockDown Browser, the page freezes while attempting ot load ("White Screen") or the browser freezes when saving or submitting your test, you will have to reboot your computer. To reboot a PC, typically you would click on Start, click on the arrow next to Shutdown, and select Restart from the menu. To reboot a Mac, click on the Apple and then click on Restart. After waiting a few minutes, turn the computer back on, then review the following conditions: Do you have a firewall enabled? Firewalls can also interfere with LockDown Browser. You will need to make sure the LockDown.exe application is allowed full access to the Internet, which means you may need to enter this into your firewall as an "Exception". Do you have pop-up blocking software enabled? Popup blockers can also interfere with Lockdown Browser opening correctly. When you click the "Launch Lockdown Browser" button, if nothing seems to happen look for an icon in the browser's address bar that indicates a popup window was blocked. If you see one, click on it and click on the option that says something like "Always allow popups from this site". Do you have any other programs or services running in the computer's background? LockDown Browser requires that any open or running programs, such as Google Desktop or Skype, must be closed. When Lockdown Browser begins to launch it should prompt you to close any applications that are known to interfere with LDB functionality. If you see this message, it is important that you click the "close applications" button. If you do not click the "close applications" button, Lockdown Browser will quit. To determine if you have any programs open and running on your PC, press your keyboard's CTRL, ALT, and DEL keys all at once. From the pop-up menu that appears, select Task Manager/View Tasks. The Task Manager will open and display any programs that are currently open and running on your computer. Select each remaining program that is open and click the End Task button in the Task Manager to close them. When the task manager is empty, no programs are open and running. Are you running updated anti-virus software? Have you scanned for viruses recently? Some virus infections have been found to prevent LockDown Browser from starting. If you are running updated anti-virus software, try running a virus scan and removing or placing in quarantine any viruses that are found. If you are not running any anti-virus software, it is recommended that you install one, check for updates, and run a full virus scan. Below are some great free options available for anti-virus software. Microsoft Security Essentials AVG Free avast! Free Antivirus Please note: This information is intended for students of Great Falls College Montana State University. If you are a student of another college, university, or school that uses Respondus LockDown Browser, please either contact your school’s Information Technology Department or Responduswith any questions, concerns, or support issues related to Respondus LockDown Browser.

If you have been kicked out of your LockDown Browser test while taking or submitting the test, or encounter an "Access Denied" error message, please do the following. Notify your instructor immediately that you are experiencing technical difficulties and may have had a failed attempt. Only your instructor can clear a failed attempt. Please note: This information is intended for students of Great Falls College Montana State University. If you are a student of another college, university, or school that uses Respondus LockDown Browser, please either contact your school’s Information Technology Department or Responduswith any questions, concerns, or support issues related to Respondus LockDown Browser. 

If you are attempting to submit a test using the LockDown Browser and, after clicking on the submit button, nothing seems to be happening and there is no clear indication that the page is reloading, please do the following. Close the LockDown Browser completely, re-open it, login to D2L, navigate to your quiz, and try again to submit it. If it still will not submit, proceed to step 2. Contact your instructor using the method they have requested to be contacted and explain the situation. In some cases, the instructor may have set the quiz or exam to behave this way once the time allotted for the exam has expired. In other cases the issue may be caused by a glitch and the instructor may be able to force the exam to the submit. Please note: This information is intended for students of Great Falls College Montana State University. If you are a student of another college, university, or school that uses Respondus LockDown Browser, please either contact your school’s Information Technology Department or Responduswith any questions, concerns, or support issues related to Respondus LockDown Browser.

To use LockDown Browser (LDB), you first need to install the program. Please visit the following article for help and information regarding how to install LDB. Installing LockDown Browser. Once you are done installing it, come back to this page to continue (there is a link to this article from the installation article).  Now that you have LDB installed, you should open your normal web browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.), login to Brightspace (D2L), go to your course, click on Toolbox, click on Quizzes, and click on the quiz or exam you would like to take. Near the bottom of the page is a button that says "Launch LockDown Browser". Clicking on that button should open the LockDown Browser application. If it doesn't open automatically, look for a popup window or icon on the screen that may be asking for your permission to allow the application to run. If you see any options that ask if you want to allow it or prevent it, click on the allow option.  Once LockDown Browser has opened it should automatically take you to your quiz or exam, click on the "Start Quiz" button, located near the bottom of the page, to start your quiz.  If you have any problems installing or using LockDown Browser, please contact your instructor or Karen and Wayne in the Technology Assistance Center for help.  Please note: This information is intended for students of Great Falls College Montana State University. If you are a student of another college, university, or school that uses Respondus LockDown Browser, please either contact your school’s Information Technology Department or Respondus with any questions, concerns, or support issues related to Respondus LockDown Browser.

At Great Falls College MSU, some of our instructors require the use of a testing center or test proctor for tests and exams. For students who are not local to our campus this can be a challenge or roadblock to their success. To help alleviate this challenge, some instructors have begun using Respondus Monitor as an option for students that allows them to use their computer's webcam to record themselves taking the exam within LockDown Browser. The instructor is then able to review the video and save any clips that may require further review. Please see the video below for more information about Respondus LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor.  Please note: This information is intended for students of Great Falls College Montana State University. If you are a student of another college, university, or school that uses Respondus LockDown Browser, please either contact your school’s Information Technology Department or Respondus with any questions, concerns, or support issues related to Respondus LockDown Browser. 

Respondus Lockdown Browser and Respondus Monitor do work on newer Chromebooks (see this Respondus article for more information on supported devices). However, there is are a couple of settings that need to be changed on the Chromebook to allow it to work properly. Please see the steps and information listed below for instructions.  Step 1) Allowing Pop-Ups In Google Chrome (This only needs to be done once) For the Chromebook Respondus Lockdown Browser extension to work properly, you must allow popups. The instructions are listed below.  Open your normal Chrome web browser.  Click the 3 dots in the upper right corner and click on Settings. In Settings, click on Privacy and Security.  Click on Site Settings. Scroll down and click on Pop-ups and Redirects. At this point, you can do one of two things: To allow all pop-ups Select the option that says "Sites can send pop-ups and use redirects" Close the Settings tab. To allow only the required pop-ups for LockDown Browser Look for the section that says "Allowed to send pop-ups and use redirects" and click the "Add" button. In the box that opens, type (or copy and paste) https://gfcmsu.desire2learn.com Click the "Add" button.  Close the Settings tab. Allowing popups should only need to be completed once, but may need to be completed again if you run "powerwash" on your Chromebook.  Step 2) Clear Cache (This step needs to be done prior to taking any exam or quiz that uses Respondus Lockdown Browser/Monitor on a Chromebook) Go to settings in Chrome Go to Privacy and Security Go Clear Browsing Data Set Time Range to "All Time" Select all three boxes and click Clear data Refresh the page, log back into Brightspace, and take your exam. Now that you've allowed popups, you can proceed to use LockDown Browser to take your quiz or exam. More Info