Windows App Essentials 22.03

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 22.03 is now available. This is a mandatory security update.

Changelog:

• NVDA 2021.3 or later is required, more so for security (NVDA 2021.3.3 is advised).
• Various features and fixes that were included with the add-on are now part of NVDA. These include announcing search suggestion count in apps such as Settings and Microsoft Store and "pane" no longer being announced when switching between apps in Windows 11.
• Installing and using the add-on on Windows Insider Preview builds between 20348 (Server 2022) and 22000 (Windows 11) is no longer supported.
• Removed the warning message when installing the add-on on Windows Server systems as the add-on is better optimized for Windows 10/11 client systems.
• Removed deprecated XAML heading detection feature.
• Removed the debug tone heard when UIA notification events come from background apps when debug log is on. Use Event Tracker add-on to debug UIA notification events.
• Removed Start menu size announcement workaround as it is no longer heard in recent Windows 10 releases.
• UIA drag drop effect property event is now tracked.
• More information is announced when arranging Start menu tiles or Action center quick actions with Alt+Shift+arrow keys such as potential location of the dragged tile and placement of Action center quick action.
• Calculator: NvDA will announce results when more commands are performed such as pressing equals (=) key and performing operations in scientific calculator mode such as trigonometric operations.
• Maps: Removed street side view workaround as it is no longer applicable in recent app releases.
• Modern keyboard: In Windows 11 clipboard history, browse mode will be turned off by default, designed to let NVDA announce clipboard history entry menu items.
• Settings: In Windows 10, update history items no longer include installation status to align with Windows 11.

Thanks.

Windows App Essentials 22.02

Note: version 22.02.1 is an emergency update on top of 22.02 that adds support for Windows 11 Notepad (version 11.2112, releated to stable build users in February 2022).

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 22.02 is now available.

IMPORTANT: from this release, Windows 10 Version 21H1 (May 2021 Update/build 19043) or later is required.

Changelog:

• Windows 10: Requires Version 21H1 or later.
• In Windows 11, microphone mute status is announced from anywhere when Windows+Alt+K is pressed.
• Notepad (Windows 11): Provided that status bar is checked from View menu, NVDA will no longer announce status bar information such as line number from places other than documetn edit window.
• Notepad (Windows 11): added support for Notepad version 11.2112. In particular, status bar content is announced in the new release.

Enjoy.

Windows App Essentials 22.01

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 22.01 is now available.

IMPORTANT: this is the last release to support Windows 10 Version 20H2 (October 2020 Update/build 19042).

Changelog:

• Transferred layout invalidated event tracking and logging to Event Tracker add-on.
• The following UIA events are no longer tracked and logged due to lack of useful information: drag start, drag cancel, drop target enter, drop target leave.
• XAML heading recognition is deprecated and will be removed in a future release as it caused problems in apps such as Calculator and Settings.
• Removed app modules for File Explorer and Microsoft Store as Store version 2 (Windows 10/11) provides better support for download progress announcements without using the app module.
• Added support for Windows 11 Notepad.
• File Explorer: due to compatibility issues with other add-ons, File Explorer app module was removed which may cause increased verbosity when switching between apps in Windows 11. The fix for "pane" announcement issue when switching apps is not affected.
• Notepad (Windows 11 preview): NVDA will announce status items such as line and column information when report status bar command (NVDA+End in desktop layout, NvDA+Shift+End in laptop layout) is performed.
• Notepad (Windows 11 preview): NVDA will no longer announce entered text when pressing Enter key from the document.
• Settings: in Windows 11, breadcrumb bar items are properly recognized.

Enjoy.

Windows App Essentials 21.11

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 21.11 is now available.

Changelog:

• Partially removed the ability to recognize additional dialogs as recent Windows and app updates improve NVDA's ability to detect dialogs without help from the add-on. Dialogs with UIA class names included in NVDA will still be detected.
• The debug log prefix was changed from "W10" to "winapps" to reflect the renamed add-on.
• It is no longer required to enable report object position information option from NVDA's object presentation settings to be notified about suggestion count when searching in various apps.
• Roles for headings found in apps such as Settings app are properly marked as headings when displaying developer info for navigator object (NVDA+F1).
• Microsoft Store: removed download list item label workaround in Windows 10 Store as the item label includes download status.
• Modern keyboard: in Windows 11, IME and hardware input suggestion candidate items are no longer announced twice.

Enjoy.

Windows App Essentials 21.10

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 21.10 is now available.

IMPORTANT: Windows App Essentials 21.10 requires NVDA 2021.2 or later.

Changelog:

• NVDA 2021.2 is required due to massive internal changes including control types refactor that affect this add-on.
• Initial support for Windows 11 Version 21H2 (RTM), not to be confused with Windows 10 Version 21H2 and Server 2022.
• Various features that were included with the add-on are now part of NVDA. These include braille announcements when entering expressions in Calculator, announcing suggestion count in File Explorer, improved item detection when emoji panel and clipboard history opens in recent Windows 10 releases, among others.
• Removed app modules for Calendar and Windows 10/11 search app (NVDA includes Windows 10 and 11 search app modules).
• Removed support for pre-refactor control types module contents in NVDA 2021.1 or earlier. Consequently, roles and states from refactored control types package are used.
• The Windows 11 support notice dialog for stable add-on releases and a startup message for detecting Windows 11 are removed.
• With event tracking for most events transferred to Event Tracker add-on, only events added by this add-on such as layout invalidated event will be tracked and logged, as well as removed the ability to track specific events and/or events coming from specific apps.
• The ability to recognize additional dialogs is deprecated and will be removed in a future release as Windows and apps were updated to let NvDA detect dialogs properly.
• Mail: removed suggestions sound playback functionality for at address suggestions.
• Windows Search: removed the Windows 10 search app module as it does not provide improved experience for braille users.

Enjoy.

Windows App Essentials 21.09

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials 21.09 is now available.

IMPORTANT: this is the last version compatible with NVDA 2020.4 and 2021.1.

Changelog:

• On systems running Windows Server releases such as Server 2022, a warning dialog will be presented when installing the add-on as most modern apps such as Microsoft Store are not present in server systems, thereby limiting add-on features.
• When using Add-on Updater to update this add-on on unsupported Windows releases, the warning dialog will resemble the one shown when installing the add-on manually by being specific about minimum supported Windows release.
• Removed dedicated search field support and transferred suggestions count announcement to a dedicated suggestions list view object.
• Calculator: added support for redesigned Calculator (version 10.2109) included in Windows 11.
• Calculator: removed memory and history item workaround in Calculator 10.2109 as these items have labels.
• Modern keyboard: in Windows 11, it is no longer required to press the Escape key twice to close combined emoji panel and clipboard history.

Enjoy.

Windows App Essentials 21.08 (Windows 10 in transition)

Hi all,

Windows App Essentials (formerly Wiondows 10 App Essentials) 21.08 is now available.

Changelog:

• Initial support for Windows 10 Version 21H2 (Second 2021 Update), unofficial support for Windows Server 2022. These two releases have different build numbers.
• Requires Windows 10 Version 20H2 or later.
• Experimental support for Windows 11, not to be confused with Windows 10 Version 21H2.
• Windows Search (formerly classic Cortana) and modern keyboard app modules were renamed to reflect executable names for these apps in Version 2004 and later.
• Removed app module for combined Mail and Calendar (experimental version) as separate apps were reinstated in late 2020.
• The ability to track and log events for most events is handled by a new add-on named Event Tracker. Consequently, tracking events such as name change and controler for events is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
• In search fields, NVDA can announce suggestions count whenever suggestions list changes as opposed to only when suggestions are first shown.
• Added support for layout invalidated UIA event, used to announce suggestions count changes as search terms are entered.
• When tracking events, information specific to certain events such as suggestion count for layout invalidated event will be logged separately from general information such as UIA element and Automation Id.
• Removed additional dialog class names as the only place where it was applicable (Windows Insider Program sign up screen) is no longer a dialog.
• Settings: in Settings/Update and Security/Recovery/Reset, initial progress messages and content changes are announced even when selective UIA event registration is active.
• Windows Search/File Explorer: in Windows 11, NVDA will no longer fail to announce suggestion count, caused by the Windows Search executable being renamed.

Enjoy.

Windows 10 App Essentials 21.06.1

Hi all,

Windows 10 App Essentials 21.06.1 is now available. The big change from 21.06 is detection of Windows 11 (Insider Preview build 22000). A warning dialog will be shown if you are trying to install stable versions of this add-on on Windows 11, as features can change without notice until Windows 11 is released to the public (USE IT ATYOUR OWN RISK FOR NOW!).

Note: this is the last add-on release to support Windows 10 Version 2004 (May 2020 Update/build 19041).

Enjoy.

Windows 10 App Essentials 21.06

Hi all,

Windows 10 App Essentials 21.06 is now available.

Changelog:

• NVDA 2020.4 or later is required.
• The following UIA events were renamed to make them consistent with actual UI Automation event names: drag target enter to drop target enter, drag target leave to drop target leave, drag target dropped to drop target dropped.
• Modern keyboard: in build 21300 and later, with focus mode active from places such as web browsers, NVDA will no longer announce blank when using the arrow keys to navigate among emojis.
• Modern keyboard: when pressing Escape key to close emoji panel or clipboard history in build 21300 and later, focus will move back to the control you were working on before modern keyboard interface was opened. In some cases, Escape key should be pressed twice.

Enjoy.

Windows 10 App Essentials 21.04

Hi all,

Windows 10 App Essentials 21.04 is now available.

Changelog:

• Resolved additional issues via Flake8.
• Calculator: calculation results from standard and scientific calculator modes will be announced in braille in addition to speech announcements.
• Calculator: calculation expressions will be announced in braille.
• Calculator: NVDA will announce calculator results when Delete key is pressed to clear results.

Enjoy.