Error: Seb failed to start a new session!

[nzwice]

Hi, I installed seb using Windows 10, the installation was fine, but when I open the app, I got an error like this:

I've already uninstalled all antivirus software, turn off windows security but still does not work.
Here is the log files:
2021-10-11_01h16m27s_Runtime.log
2021-10-11_01h16m27s_Client.log
How to fix that?

[dbuechel]

It appears that the application components of SEB can't communicate with each other on your system. Are you using any security / anti-virus software which could block inter-process communication? SEB uses WCF (Windows Communication Foundation), so make sure that the .NET Framework and WCF in particular work on your system.

[Donzelll]

Hi i have the same problem and picture above is my log. Any advice?

[dbuechel]

Use the Reset Utility to fix the ease of access configuration.

[mnsosa]

Any solution? I have the same problem.

[dbuechel]

The error message above is generic and may have many causes. Do you have the same error as in the logs attached above or a different one? In either case, please post your log files here so that we may investigate the issue further.

[ciccio1404]

Salve, ho lo stesso identico problema... Chiedendomi di immettere 'password delle impostazioni'. Ha funzionato nei giorni scorsi, ed oggi ha fatto così. Tra 7 giorni devo sostenere il Tolc, come faccio?

[arvemell]

We have the exact issue here. "ERROR: Failed to connect to the runtime. Aborting startup..." There has been about 10-20 students so far with this issue. Tried to reinstall VC++\net frame but still not working :(
Any suggestions?

[dbuechel]

@olegfeferman Excellent news! Just out of curiosity: Would you mind sharing what the exact name conflict was which occurred with your updater service? I thought that I chose the names for the pipes between SEB's components sufficiently careful, but I might have missed something and do need to improve the naming in SEB as well.

[olegfeferman]

@dbuechel For historical reasons we've used base addresses in ServiceHost. So from my point of view you have nothing to fix.

[dbuechel]

@olegfeferman Thanks a lot for your reply. Would you mind elaborating a bit more with regard to the base address you mentioned resp. how that would break the IPC of SEB's components? We had similar issues with SEB 2.x because that version actually used a generic base address, but I tried to remedy this by using a specific base address in version 3.x (namely net.pipe://localhost/safeexambrowser/...).

Is it the case that you used net.pipe://localhost/ as base address and this had the effect of blocking the IPC of SEB? I don't quite understand the root cause of the issue yet and have furthermore seen that these errors are happening quite a bit these days. Thus it would be awesome if you could help me understand the exact root cause so that I can help other users better when they run into the same issue due to another software.

[olegfeferman]

@dbuechel we used net.pipe://localhost/ as base address and then our own name when doing AddServiceEndpoint.

[dbuechel]

Hm, okay, thanks for the clarification. So in that case it appears that this blocks any other application from registering a ServiceHost for net.pipe:localhost, even though the actual path may be different. Not good, but that would explain why there are other support requests with that error since I reckon that there are quite a few applications which (erroneously) use that global base address.

[EliaSchmid]

Hello, I have the same problem.
I need to use the safe exam browser for my exams and am the only one with this problem.
Any fixes?

[dbuechel]

What is the service component and where would I disable it?

I would advise you to try this first: Open the service control panel of Windows, search for "Safe Exam Browser Service" and stop or even disable it. Then try again to start SEB.

Also this Laptop that I am using is brand new and doesn't have anything installed on it so I can't imagine what could be interfering with SEB.

We can't really verify that without having physical access to the machine itself. If you could make a video of how you try to start SEB and / or provide a list of all applications you have installed on your system, then we might get a step further here.

[EliaSchmid]

I would advise you to try this first: Open the service control panel of Windows, search for "Safe Exam Browser Service" and stop or even disable it. Then try again to start SEB.

I tried this, but that didn't fix the problem and resulted in the same error as before. I will attach the new service and runtime logs

We can't really verify that without having physical access to the machine itself. If you could make a video of how you try to start SEB and / or provide a list of all applications you have installed on your system, then we might get a step further here.

I wasn't able to record it at the last exam but this is roughly what happened:

• I downloaded the configuration file for the exam
• I opened the file
• SEB started up and loaded the session for some time
• At about half the progression bar, the error appeared

Is there some easy way to generate a comprehensive list of applications on a system?

[EliaSchmid]

2023-03-02_15h00m55s_Runtime.log
2023-03-02_15h02m28s_Runtime.log
2023-03-02_15h02m28s_Service.log
2023-03-02_15h03m30s_Runtime.log
2023-03-02_15h03m53s_Runtime.log
2023-03-02_15h04m31s_Runtime.log
2023-03-02_15h04m31s_Service.log

Here are the files, I tried to open the session a couple of times. I deactivated my antivirus before downloading the configuration file, then disabled the service component, then opened the file

[omerabdul]

Hi @dbuechel, I'm trying to manage an exam. Could you tell me if the log files are automatically sent to the server side in real time or is it required for the test-taker to manually share logs after session is closed?

[dbuechel]

Please do create a new discussion for topics unrelated to the original question. No, SEB does not communicate with any server applications unless you're e.g. using SEB Server.

[leo00oel]

how can i slove this error?

[leo00oel]

2020-09-13_19h35m54s_Runtime.log
is this the log files?

[dbuechel]

This is one of them revealing that there was an issue with the client component while attempting to initiate a new session:

2020-09-13 19:36:17.793 [16] - DEBUG: [Process 'SafeExamBrowser.Client.exe' (10228)] Process has terminated.
2020-09-13 19:36:17.795 [07] - ERROR: Client instance terminated unexpectedly during initialization!
2020-09-13 19:36:17.798 [07] - ERROR: Failed to start new client instance! Aborting procedure...

Please provide the client log file specified in the error message above to determine the exact reason of failure.

[dbuechel]

Terribly sorry, I just realize that this is not at all the correct log file; you posted a log file from the year 2020! Please do provide exactly the ones specified in the error message above.

[leo00oel]

um can u suggest me how to get those log files?

[dbuechel]

Open the path specified in the error message in Windows explorer. All log files of SEB 3.x for Windows are always located under %LocalAppData%\SafeExamBrowser\Logs.

[yiemyi05]

Hola, han podido hallar alguna solución al problema?

[dbuechel]

Please specify the exact problem you're encountering resp. provide the log files of the affected session. The session start error message is generic and may have a variety of underlying causes.

[Simie851]

Saya mengalami masalah yang sama ini saya lampirkan file client dan runtime saya, terimakasih
[
2025-04-15_14h00m34s_Client.log
2025-04-15_14h00m34s_Runtime.log
](url)

[bayualsadewa]

apakah anda sudah menemukan cara mengatasinya? aku juga mengalami masalah yang sama.

[chano260]

Hi, I installed seb using Windows 11, the installation was fine, but when I open the app, I got an error like this:

I've already uninstalled all antivirus software, turn off windows security but still does not work.
Here is the log files:
2025-04-18_15h26m02s_Runtime.log
2025-04-18_15h26m02s_Client.log
How to fix that?

[JStromGY]

@Simie851 @chano260 In Windows, go to Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Location and turn on positioning for SEB. After that it should work for both of you.

[bayualsadewa]

i doing all this, but is not solve the problem

2025-05-20_14h23m58s_Client.log
2025-05-20_14h23m58s_Runtime.log
Maybe you can help me about my problem. this my log file.

[JStromGY]

Can you go into "c:\program files\safeexambrowser\application" and confirm that there is a file called CefSharp.Core.Runtime.dll in that directory?
The logs says it is missing and that's why SEB fails to start.

[bayualsadewa]

yes i have the file of CefSharp.Core.Runtime.dll on that folder.

i tried anything way like give question to chatgpt, and almost solve the problem. main problem cant solve but in the log file i have new problem, the problem is
"[Process 'SafeExamBrowser.Client.exe' (7788)] Process has terminated. Client instance terminated unexpectedly during initialization!".
Until here, chatgpt cant help me again

[dbuechel]

@bayualsadewa Please try again with the latest release version; 3.7.0 had, among other things, a concurrency issue which could lead to crashes.

[bayualsadewa]

I am use 3.7.1 version and i can installed normally, but if i use to web test, i had the same problem (same error).
if you mean i must use the new version maybe 3.9.0, i cant do it, because the requirement of test from the institute said we must use 3.7.0 version.

[singhal-amit]

Hey, I was trying to ready the SEB for the test and got the same error. I checked the log files and the error was given as:

2025-06-17 21:29:09.147 [01] - ERROR: Caught unexpected exception while performing operation 'LazyInitializationOperation'!

   Exception Message: Access is denied
   Exception Type: System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception

   at SimpleWifi.Win32.WlanClient..ctor()
   at SimpleWifi.Wifi..ctor()
   at SafeExamBrowser.SystemComponents.Network.NetworkAdapter.Initialize() in C:\Users\appveyor\projects\seb-win-refactoring-2cm5n6dku3tpmv82\SafeExamBrowser.SystemComponents\Network\NetworkAdapter.cs:line 92
   at SafeExamBrowser.Client.Operations.ShellOperation.InitializeSystemComponents() in C:\Users\appveyor\projects\seb-win-refactoring-2cm5n6dku3tpmv82\SafeExamBrowser.Client\Operations\ShellOperation.cs:line 230
   at SafeExamBrowser.Client.Operations.ShellOperation.Perform() in C:\Users\appveyor\projects\seb-win-refactoring-2cm5n6dku3tpmv82\SafeExamBrowser.Client\Operations\ShellOperation.cs:line 85
   at SafeExamBrowser.Core.OperationModel.OperationSequence.Perform() in C:\Users\appveyor\projects\seb-win-refactoring-2cm5n6dku3tpmv82\SafeExamBrowser.Core\OperationModel\OperationSequence.cs:line 108

2025-06-17 21:29:09.150 [01] - INFO: Terminating shell...

I tried disabling my wifi adapter but then it showed No MAC address list was found but my Ethernet and Bluetooth drivers were enabled.

log files -
2025-06-17_21h29m01s_Client.log
2025-06-17_21h29m01s_Runtime.log

[singhal-amit]

edit: I got it fixed by downloading latest version of SEB 3.9 from the repo. I would still like to know the cause of this issue for the release of 3.7 version.

[JStromGY]

edit: I got it fixed by downloading latest version of SEB 3.9 from the repo. I would still like to know the cause of this issue for the release of 3.7 version.

Hi, it's a change Microsoft did with one of their updates in late autumn/early winter. The update requires applications to ask for permission to use the Positioning functionality in a way that is similar to how it is on phones. For version 3.7(the one you used) and earlier versions this can be fixed by enabling positioning for Safe Exam Browser manually in the Windows Privacy menu. Hope this answers your question!

[singhal-amit]

Hey, thanks for the fix you provided. I encountered a version compatibility issue with 3.9, so downloaded 3.7 from the documentation and got the same error. I followed the steps you provided above and it worked. Thanks again.

Simplified Steps for anyone encountering same issue -

• Step 1: click Start → Settings.
• Step 2: go to Privacy & Security → “Location” under App permissions.
• Step 3: Turn On Location Services
• Step 4: Turn On “Let apps access your location” and “Let desktop apps access your location”.
• Step 5: Enable for Safe Exam Browser in the list.
  (If it’s not visible yet, you may need to open SEB once first — Windows will then detect it as a desktop app and list it here.)
• Step 6: Restart SEB

[sxtyxm123]

same issue
2025-07-14_00h28m47s_Runtime.log
2025-07-14_00h28m47s_Client.log

[dbuechel]

Verify that you have granted the location permission as already explained in #928.

[sxtyxm123]

Verify that you have granted the location permission as already explained in #928.

thank you so much for reply but this issue was resolved by my university's lab technician, yes you are right it was the location access related issue after allowing it was working but still there was an error but after that he also configured the SEB and saved my university's LMS link then it was working fine

[dbuechel]

This discussion has become too broad resp. concerning many (often unrelated) topics as the error message of the OP above is generic and may have many different causes.

[shimselv]

hi, i have similiar problem with SEB, here the issue, i use 3.9 version and can't have older version

2025-08-06_20h29m45s_Runtime.log
2025-08-06_20h29m45s_Client.log

is there anything i can do?

[JStromGY]

hi, i have similiar problem with SEB, here the issue, i use 3.9 version and can't have older version

2025-08-06_20h29m45s_Runtime.log 2025-08-06_20h29m45s_Client.log

is there anything i can do?

Hi, the thing that is blocking SEB from starting is TeamViewer, specifically TeamViewer_Service.exe. If you uninstall the program or kill/stop that process then things should work. You can do this by pressing ctrl-shift-escape to open task manager and from there locate it under either the 'processes' or 'services' tab.

[shimselv]

Hi, I tried to unistall TeamViewer and the SEB works as usual.
Thank you so much for your advice.

[duzousolom]

hello,i got a same issue,please help me check this
2025-09-21_16h07m50s_Runtime.log
2025-09-21_16h07m50s_Service.log

[dbuechel]

2025-09-21 16:07:56.296 [04] - ERROR: [EaseOfAccessConfiguration] Failed to set registry item 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\Utilman.exe\Debugger' => 'SebDummy.exe'!

   Exception Message: 尝试执行未经授权的操作。
   Exception Type: System.UnauthorizedAccessException

   在 Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey.Win32Error(Int32 errorCode, String str)
   在 Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey.SetValue(String name, Object value, RegistryValueKind valueKind)
   在 Microsoft.Win32.Registry.SetValue(String keyName, String valueName, Object value, RegistryValueKind valueKind)
   在 SafeExamBrowser.Lockdown.FeatureConfigurations.RegistryConfigurations.RegistryConfiguration.TrySet(RegistryDataItem item) 位置 C:\Users\appveyor\projects\seb-win-refactoring-6tj6ae97ro290h9u\SafeExamBrowser.Lockdown\FeatureConfigurations\RegistryConfigurations\RegistryConfiguration.cs:行号 229

You can use the SEB Reset Utility to resolve the issue.

[JStromGY]

2025-09-21 16:07:56.296 [04] - ERROR: [EaseOfAccessConfiguration] Failed to set registry item 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\Utilman.exe\Debugger' => 'SebDummy.exe'!

   Exception Message: 尝试执行未经授权的操作。
   Exception Type: System.UnauthorizedAccessException

   在 Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey.Win32Error(Int32 errorCode, String str)
   在 Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey.SetValue(String name, Object value, RegistryValueKind valueKind)
   在 Microsoft.Win32.Registry.SetValue(String keyName, String valueName, Object value, RegistryValueKind valueKind)
   在 SafeExamBrowser.Lockdown.FeatureConfigurations.RegistryConfigurations.RegistryConfiguration.TrySet(RegistryDataItem item) 位置 C:\Users\appveyor\projects\seb-win-refactoring-6tj6ae97ro290h9u\SafeExamBrowser.Lockdown\FeatureConfigurations\RegistryConfigurations\RegistryConfiguration.cs:行号 229

You can use the SEB Reset Utility to resolve the issue.

What options do you have if SEB Reset Utility can't be used?
Our scenario: Needs admin to run, running it with an admin-account runs the reset on the wrong account.

[dbuechel]

Use the option to reset to default values, then enter the correct user name; or you delete the key manually in the registry editor.

[Kashish23092004]

I am getting an error in my Safe Exam Browser and it stops working before my exam. I have my exam today and it’s urgent. Please see the attached screenshot of the problem. Can you suggest how to fix it quickly

[dbuechel]

You'll need to provide the log file specified in the error message.

[12pradeep7m]

i also same issue pls help what to do next?

2025-11-13_16h15m43s_Service.log

[dbuechel]

Again, you're using a custom build.

[12pradeep7m]

2025-11-13_16h15m43s_Runtime.log
2025-11-13_16h15m43s_Service.log