Windows App Essentials 24.02

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 24.02 is now available.

Changelog:

• Modern keyboard/voice typing (Windows 11): NVDA will announce voice typing alert regardless of UIA event registration setting (selective or global). As a result, the ability to announce "listening" when pressing Windows+H is deprecated and will be removed in a future add-on release.
• Modern keyboard/suggested actions: NVDA will announce the top suggestion instead of all suggested actions.

Enjoy.

Windows App Essentials 24.01

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 24.01 is now avaialbe.

IMPORTANT: as of this release, Windows 10 support features are frozen (no new features, changes, and bug fixes).

Changelog:

• Reintroduced Calculator app module.
• Optimized add-on code to use NVDA 2024.1 features and work better with selective UIA event registration.
• Calculator: NVDA will announce results when pressing Enter with calculations involving identical single digit operands between an operator (for example, 2+2).
• Settings: NVDA will announce Windows Update progress in Windows Insider canary build 26010 and later.

Enjoy.

Windows App Essentials 23.12

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 23.12 is now available.

Changelog:

• NVDA 2023.3 or later is required.
• Removed app module for Voice Access.
• Settings: Removed update history label workaround and update announcement caching (Windows 10), optional Windows Update label announcement (Windows 10 and 11), and breadcrumb bar item recognition (Windows 11).
• Voice Access: removed microphone button toggle as announcement can be inaccurate at times and cannot be toggled using object navigation and touch gestures.

Enjoy.

Windows App Essentials 23.11

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 23.11 is now available.

IMPORTANT NOTE for Windows 10 users: the next version of the add-on will freeze support for Windows 10 - no new features, changes, and bug fixes apart from code maintenance.

Changelog:

• Modern keyboard: NVDA will no longer announce focused control twice in some apps after closing Windows 11 clipboard history.
• Settings: Workarounds related to Windows Update and Windows 11 breadcrumb bar item recognition are deprecated and will be removed in a future add-on release.
• Voice Access: Microphone button toggle announcement is deprecated and will be removed in a future add-on release.

Enjoy.

Windows App Essentials 23.10

Hello all,

Windows App Essentials 23.10 is now available.

Changelog:

• NVDA 2023.2 or later is required.
• Various features and fixes that were included with the add-on are now part of NVDA. These include virtual desktop switch announcements, announcing tab switches in Notepad (Windows 11) and File Explorer (Windows 11 22H2), Windows 11 IME interface support in modern keyboard, and anouncing expressions in Calculator compact overlay mode when using portable NVDA.
• Removed support for automatic add-on updates feature from Add-on Updater add-on with its impending end of life.
• Changed add-on home page shown on add-on store from community add-ons (addons.nvda-project.org) website to GitHub (github.com/josephsl/wintenapps) repository.

Enjoy.

Windows App Essentials 23.09

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 23.09 is now available.

Changelog:

• Removed app module for Cortana.
• Cortana: Deprecated and replaced by Windows Copilot with the interface powered by Microsoft Edge. As a result, textual responses from Cortana will no longer be announced.
• Modern keyboard/Voice Access (Windows 11 22H2 and later): When "correct that" voice command is issued, NVDA will announce appearance of dictation suggestions instead of just announcing the selected text.

Enjoy.

Windows App Essentials 23.08 (scaling up and down)

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 23.08 is now available.

IMPORTANT: starting from this release, Windows 10/11 22H2 are required.

Changelog:

• Windows 11: Requires Version 22H2 or later.
• Removed app modules for CSRSS and MSN Weather.
• Removed Windows 10 and 11 taskbar item enhancements such as announcing position information when reviewing (Windows 10 and 11) and rearranging items (Windows 11). These were emulated changes for features introduced and then removed in Insider Preview builds.
• CSRSS: Transferred virtual desktop switch announcement from CSRSS app module to WinApObjs global plugin to align with recent NVDA source code changes.
• MSN Weather: Removed tab control role reclassification.

Enjoy.

Windows App Essentials 23.07

Note: 23.07.1 includes minor code edits, and 23.07.2 is the last version to support Windows 11 21H2.

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 23.07 is now available.

IMPORTANT: this is the last version to support Windows 11 21H2 (original release/build 22000).

Changelog:

• Initial support for Windows 11 Version 23H2 (2023 Update).
• Removed app module for Maps.
• Taskbar enhancements such as position announcements when reviewing (Windows 10 and 11) and rearranging items (Windows 11) are deprecated and will be removed in a future add-on release.
• NVDA will once again present list of supported Windows releases if attempting to install the add-on on unsupported Windows releases.
• Cortana: To be replaced by Windows Copilot with the interface powered by Microsoft Edge. As a result, announcing Cortana responses is deprecated and will be removed in a future add-on release.
• Maps: Removed focus announcement workaround seen when reviewing app menu items.
• MSN Weather: Tab control role reclassification is deprecated and will be removed in a future add-on release.
• Settings: Removed early progress and message announcements workaround in Settings/Update and Security (System in Windows 11)/Recovery/Reset as NVDA can announce these messages regardless of selective UIA event registration setting.

Enjoy.

Windows App Essentials 23.06

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 23.06 is now available.

IMPORTANT: NVDA 2023.1 and Windows 10 22H2 or later are required.

Changelog:

• NVDA 2023.1 or later is required.
• Windows 10: Requires Version 22H2, end of support for Server 2022 from the add-on. Version 22H2 is the final feature update.
• Various features and fixes that were included with the add-on are now part of NVDA. These include announcing search highlights in Windows 11 Start menu, recognizing search fields and suggestions in more apps such as People, mouse and touch interaction in Windows 11 22H2 Open With dialog and Moment 2 system tray overflow window, and disabling browse mode in Windows 11 clipboard history.
• NVDA will announce virtual desktop names before announcing focus changes, notably when opening and switching between virtual desktops.
• When attempting to install the add-on on unsupported Windows builds, NVDA will present supported releases with higher build numbers.
• Modern keyboard: Removed Windows 10 emoji panel navigator object workaround after selecting emoji/kaomoji/symbols categories.
• MSN Weather: Due to app changes, dedicated commands to review forecast item content using up and down arrow keys are removed. Use browse mode commands to read forecast content in app version 4.53.51095 and later.
• Settings: Removed developer mode label workaround in Windows 10.

Enjoy.

Windows App Essentials 23.05

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 23.05 is now available.

IMPORTANT: this is the last add-on release to support Windows 10 Version 21H2 (build 19044) and NVDA 2022.4.

Changelog:

• File Explorer: Removed empty folder announcement feature due to a critical bug that cannot be resolved easily.
• Maps: Removed map location beeps feature in favor of Object Location Tones add-on.

Enjoy.