[ms office - o365] Block Word References/Researcher and/or internet access [Exam cheatiness]

[Garacesh]

It has come to our attention that References/Researcher and References/Smart Lookup can be used to be a little bit cheaty in exams.

And of course, by 'come to our attention' I mean 'my tech caught a kid doing it', thankfully only during a mock exam.

 

We have been able to block the Smart Lookup menu by setting HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common, InsightsEnabled (REG_DWORD), 0, but we're struggling with the Researcher option.

Using the Researcher option, you can lookup information and even read wikipedia pages without ever opening a web browser or leaving Word itself.

I'm aware that this is one of those things that invigilators should catch, but given you don't even need to tab out of Office, I can see it quite easy to covertly pull off.

 

So why not just set a bogus proxy and block all traffic to the user?

Well A) because other accessibility software we use goes out over the 'net to confirm its license is valid, and B) I tried that and it didn't work anyway. Even with a proxy set as 127.0.0.1:404, MSOffice can still chat to the internet. My assumption is that it isn't doing this over :80 or :443 and thus isn't going to the web filter.

 

So, ExamWritePad then?

Nope, due to a high volume of EAL pupils, some pupils have spell checking and translation options enabled.

 

Throw the exam board's 'must be their usual way of working' thing into the mix and it looks like it's gotta be Word.

 

Google has found me a visual basic command (Application.CommandBars("Research").Enabled = False) but that relies on being manually set and Word remembering the preference. Since this is likely to be a per-user-per-device setting, and the exam accounts are purged on logoff, that seems like it wouldn't work.

I also found a big list of controls that should be settable in the User Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Word 2016*\Disable Items in User Interface\Custom\Disable Commands, which I've set as 7343,26991,7387,27320,25536 (which is ResearchPane (toggleButton), Researcher (button), ReadingViewResearchPane (button), GroupResearch (group), and Insights (button)**, but that hasn't proved fruitful either.

 

How are other people combatting this?

Are others even combatting this? Or is this a new thing in Word that people aren't aware of?

 

* Are we still using the 2016 GPO's even for MSOffice 365 ClickToRun? This MS download link as of April 21st does say Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise but all the GPO's are still called access16, excel16 etc.

** It's not immediately obviously part of Researcher, but the Group/Context Menu Name is listed as GroupResearch.

[psydii]

A custom normal.dot with an embedded macro?

[chaplic]

If the VB command work, run procmon whilst it runs and see if it's changing a registry key?

[chazzy2501]

I've just solved (kinda) this issue. (needed edge for PDFs and read aloud but no internet) I put exam pupils on to a different proxy. (if you use RM technologies you have a few) Then filter traffic accordingly.