With some versions of Window, in particular the latest ones, and some antivirus it may happen that after running the Safe Exam Browser software the audio configuration of the computer is not restored and the audio remains disabled both in output (speakers / headphones) and in input (microphone).
Restoring the audio manually is still a very simple operation and takes a few seconds.
First, let's restore the output audio. To do this, locate the speaker in the Windows bar at the bottom right and follow the instructions at the bottom of the slides.
Click on the speaker with the left mouse button. You see that the audio output is disabled because of the "X" next to the speaker
Click either on the speaker icon indicated by the red arrow or move the bar a little (it doesn't matter if on the left or on the right)
Now the audio has been restored, there is no longer the "X" but there is an icon representing sound waves
Restoring the input audio is an equally simple process even if it involves a few more steps. Again, follow the instructions at the bottom of the slides.
Similarly to what was done before, you go back to the speaker icon in the Windows bar
This time right click to activate the menu with the various options and choose "Open audio settings"
Maximize the window that has just opened and click on the "Audio Control Panel"
A window with several tabs will open. By default we are on the "Playback" tab, select the "Recording" tab
Select the default microphone (the one with the green check) by clicking on it twice with the left mouse button
A new window will open with several tabs. By default we are on the "General" tab, select the "Levels" tab
In the tab you can find the button that enables / disables the microphone, click on it to enable it (the small "no parking" sign inside the icon must disappear). Then press "Ok" to close the windows
The steps presented for Windows 10 also work for Windows 7. To get to the audio control panel presented in the previous slides, right-click on the speaker and then select "Recording devices" directly from the menu as shown in the image below. Then continue as per slide 4 of the Windows 10 instructions.
