ExamWritePad

[ass17]

One thing we mentioned a while ago is some way of changing the order so that the cover sheet comes out before the main page on papercut. Was this something that was possible in the end @ass17 ? Also thanks so much for the software

 

Nope, but it will be in as a config option for the next version [emoji16]

[Soundish]

Just want to say this is a great piece of software and we've managed to roll it out quickly within a few days last week.

Everything is working great for us except we have an issue where after around 10 minutes of inactivity, or whenever the monitor is set to power save the app itself will just close. It's not an issue during the exam itself as it's always got activity but our Exams team understandably like to have everything logged in and ready to go before the start time.

Just wondering if anyone else has encountered a similar issue? We've tried exempting ExamWritePad.exe from our Faronics set up but the issue still occurs.

[drh92]

been working fine for 3 weeks + mocks, but recently has started taking 5+ mins to open - it looks as though its not responding and then slowly comes to life - anyone else had this?

[ass17]

been working fine for 3 weeks + mocks, but recently has started taking 5+ mins to open - it looks as though its not responding and then slowly comes to life - anyone else had this?

 

Would be interested to know if it’s a windows update or antivirus update etc…

[drh92]

its not on all machines, its very odd

 

the machines are all setup via intune, 4 out of 6 are fine, all with the same updates

 

ive just been leaving the program open overnight to be honest, saves messing around!

[MkII]

Working great deployed via InTune here.

 

Saved our bacon last week... kid threw a fit and deleted his exam paper and emptied the recycle bin - he didn't know about the auto backup every minute saved to his local profile data.

[ass17]

Working great deployed via InTune here.

 

Saved our bacon last week... kid threw a fit and deleted his exam paper and emptied the recycle bin - he didn't know about the auto backup every minute saved to his local profile data.

 

[emoji1303]

[E_G_R2]

been working fine for 3 weeks + mocks, but recently has started taking 5+ mins to open - it looks as though its not responding and then slowly comes to life - anyone else had this?

 

We've had this. Yesterday PC's opened fine then in the afternoon the same PC's wouldn't open but PC's not used did.

[ass17]

We've had this. Yesterday PC's opened fine then in the afternoon the same PC's wouldn't open but PC's not used did.

 

I think the first thing you should do is turn on DebugApplication in the config, then at least it might throw up some info and timings to look into. And also the event log for IDs 1000 and 17181

[Driftingashore]

One of our English teachers wants to use EWP for written coursework that will be created over a series of lessons rather than in a one-off exam.

 

Does EWP remember save / remember the config that a file was created with when that file is reopened? e.g. if we used a shortcut to load the config file with /CONFIG:"etc." but in a later lesson the student opened the saved file directly rather than using the shortcut -> Open File, would the original config still apply?

[ass17]

One of our English teachers wants to use EWP for written coursework that will be created over a series of lessons rather than in a one-off exam.

 

Does EWP remember save / remember the config that a file was created with when that file is reopened? e.g. if we used a shortcut to load the config file with /CONFIG:"etc." but in a later lesson the student opened the saved file directly rather than using the shortcut -> Open File, would the original config still apply?

 

The config has to follow the EWP executable for it to work in the scenario you describe. Either in the same folder or outside called via shortcut as you referred to.

 

Therefore it doesn’t remember the config options directly in a saved ExamText File.

[Kyran]

Is anyone aware of a way to set ExamWritePad to have it so Autosave does not overwrite current versions, but saves them as Version 1, 2, 3 or a way we can see Version history between each AutoSave?

 

We have had a user who was using the software, deleted his work and then Autosaved saved the doc as it was and so all the work had been lost, want to know if there is a way to see previous versions and what can be done to prevent this from happening in the future

[drh92]

We've had this. Yesterday PC's opened fine then in the afternoon the same PC's wouldn't open but PC's not used did.

 

Figured mine it - it was the printer. Papercut Print Deploy wasn't running, so it was freezing while looking for a printer.

[ass17]

Is anyone aware of a way to set ExamWritePad to have it so Autosave does not overwrite current versions, but saves them as Version 1, 2, 3 or a way we can see Version history between each AutoSave?

 

We have had a user who was using the software, deleted his work and then Autosaved saved the doc as it was and so all the work had been lost, want to know if there is a way to see previous versions and what can be done to prevent this from happening in the future

 

Hi Kyran, droll ok me an email and I can show you both things that you describe

 

[email protected]

[ass17]

Figured mine it - it was the printer. Papercut Print Deploy wasn't running, so it was freezing while looking for a printer.

 

Will make a note of that, because it does check the printer for a status update.

[drh92]

If it helps, it timed out after around 3 and a half mins and proceeded to load with printing disabled, but I've only tested on that one machine, so I couldnt say if the timeout was consistent

[ass17]

If it helps, it timed out after around 3 and a half mins and proceeded to load with printing disabled, but I've only tested on that one machine, so I couldnt say if the timeout was consistent

 

I will do some testing on it, seems to only happen with print deployment solutions like papercut.

 

Certainly at runtime startup it’s not that important I check for status. This can be done when printing.

[Sharrad]

Hi all,

We are new users of ExamWritePad for our exam season this year and it's worked so much better for us! The easy configuration, auto saving and mostly, auto backups are awesome! We just need to be able to remove that pesky "new" button and all would be perfect!

I'm here to ask about your config/setup for the software, how do you guys manage the files or do you mostly not worry about them as they require printing? We spend a good few days writing a startup script for the software to map network drives etc. - we also store the config file on a network location and pull it when it runs, which seems to work flawlessly allowing for instant changes everywhere.

 

TL;DR - Just curious on how you configure EWP so we can improve ours.

 

Thank you for your insight,Josh

[ass17]

Hi all,

We are new users of ExamWritePad for our exam season this year and it's worked so much better for us! The easy configuration, auto saving and mostly, auto backups are awesome! We just need to be able to remove that pesky "new" button and all would be perfect!

I'm here to ask about your config/setup for the software, how do you guys manage the files or do you mostly not worry about them as they require printing? We spend a good few days writing a startup script for the software to map network drives etc. - we also store the config file on a network location and pull it when it runs, which seems to work flawlessly allowing for instant changes everywhere.

 

TL;DR - Just curious on how you configure EWP so we can improve ours.

 

Thank you for your insight,Josh

 

Hi Josh,

 

Removal of the New button will be in the August release of EWP.

 

What we do at my school is every user logins to the same accounts called “exams”. Each login maps a unique home drive that consists of the computer name and the date time of login.

When the user logs out. That home drive on server never can be accessed by anyone other than us in IT.

The autobackups are stored on the local PC disk drive, and remain there until the GCSE/A-Level results days have passed, then we delete them.

We clean up the server folders once a year, small file sizes so easy to manage and backed up.

 

As for the deployment of EWP, we use a computer startup script to copy once a day to the local PC, No modify permissions on the folder, but only copy if there have been and changes, compares the file dates etc.

 

Because we are using one single account to login with, it’s easier to manage the GPO restrictions and internet blocking.

We also have computer GPO policies that only apply when you move the PCs into an OU with the restrictions applied to it. Then when the PCs have finished the exam period, we move them back into there normal parent OU to basically undo all the exam policies that were applied before.

[Sharrad]

Removal of the New button will be in the August release of EWP.

Perfect!

 

It’s easier to manage the GPO restrictions and internet blocking.

I dream of the efficiency of GPOs - we use Intune / Endpoint Manager policies which are slow and inefficient to update.

 

It sounds fairly similar to the way we have it but we use a script on launch of the software rather than login - we create a new folder for PC but this has a slight possibility of sticking and being accessed by the next user, forcing a creation with time and date in it is a good idea!

 

Thanks for the info!

[ass17]

Perfect!

 

 

I dream of the efficiency of GPOs - we use Intune / Endpoint Manager policies which are slow and inefficient to update.

 

It sounds fairly similar to the way we have it but we use a script on launch of the software rather than login - we create a new folder for PC but this has a slight possibility of sticking and being accessed by the next user, forcing a creation with time and date in it is a good idea!

 

Thanks for the info!

 

The scipt I created to get a unique home directory is below:

https://github.com/sheldog17/Scripting-Snippets/blob/main/Unique%20Home%20Directory.vbs

 

And the ExamWritePad Launcher we use to use is:

https://github.com/sheldog17/Scripting-Snippets/blob/main/ExamWritePad-Launcher.vbs

Edited June 14, 2023 by ass17

[RLR]

Hi Josh,

 

Removal of the New button will be in the August release of EWP.

 

What we do at my school is every user logins to the same accounts called “exams”. Each login maps a unique home drive that consists of the computer name and the date time of login.

When the user logs out. That home drive on server never can be accessed by anyone other than us in IT.

The autobackups are stored on the local PC disk drive, and remain there until the GCSE/A-Level results days have passed, then we delete them.

We clean up the server folders once a year, small file sizes so easy to manage and backed up.

 

As for the deployment of EWP, we use a computer startup script to copy once a day to the local PC, No modify permissions on the folder, but only copy if there have been and changes, compares the file dates etc.

 

Because we are using one single account to login with, it’s easier to manage the GPO restrictions and internet blocking.

We also have computer GPO policies that only apply when you move the PCs into an OU with the restrictions applied to it. Then when the PCs have finished the exam period, we move them back into there normal parent OU to basically undo all the exam policies that were applied before.

This is pretty much the same as what we do except we have seperate logins for each laptop. The laptop is setup to auto login to it's assigned exam account so we don't need to provide usernames and passwords to anyone. They just turn on/restart the laptop and it will login and open up the exam software automaticlly.

[mavhc]

The scipt I created to get a unique home directory is below:

https://github.com/sheldog17/Scripting-Snippets/blob/main/Unique%20Home%20Directory.vbs

 

And the ExamWritePad Launcher we use to use is:

https://github.com/sheldog17/Scripting-Snippets/blob/main/ExamWritePad-Launcher.vbs

 

If the same user is creating all those folders, how do you stop a user going to the share, going up one level, and seeing other people's work?

[ass17]

If the same user is creating all those folders, how do you stop a user going to the share, going up one level, and seeing other people's work?

 

They cannot because they don’t know the path and we disable creating shortcuts.

[mavhc]

I'd run a VBA macro to list the env vars, which would tell me my homedrive path, then paste that into the address bar

 

https://wellsr.com/vba/2019/excel/list-all-environment-variables-with-vba-environ/