Thanks for that tip. Only thing you did leave out, is how I am going to disable
that boot. Still struggling to find my way around Windows8, so please provide
some steps, and I will be glad to see if it helps my situation.
----- Original Message -----
From: Stephen Clower
To: David
Cc: WE English mailing list
Sent: Monday, June 17, 2013 2:05 PM
Subject: Re: WE and NVDA
David,
We recently discovered an issue where the new UEFI secure boot system found
in some Windows 8 machine could inadvertently cause certain parts of
Window-Eyes not to load. If you disable secure boot, Window-Eyes should behave
normally again.
We are currently investigating a more suitable work-around on our end that
won't require EUFI be disabled.
Thanks,
Steve
On 6/17/2013 6:57 AM, David wrote:
In late May, GW released the locale version of WE8.2, in my region. Great
news, since I finally could start to benefit from the upgrades that came in the
8-series of the screen reader. And, it also meant, that I now could bring out
my new machine - which unfortunately has Windows8 installed. Yet, I have to
say, the joy was somehow mixed, and has been so for the last few weeks. I now
hope that someone can tell me what I am to change for settings.
First thing I do notice, is that the set files do not always load
automatically. For instance, it took a while, before I realized that the newly
- all fresh - installation of WE8.2, did not load the Firefox set file
automatically, when I opened Firefox. I then went through the process of
manually loading and associating the set file with Firefox. Seems to work OK
now, but still wonder why this did not happen automatically in a brand new
installation.
Yesterday, I decided to register my new PC, with HP. This is a fairly easy
process, since the HP machine comes with a pre-installed piece of software.
Running this software, up comes two consequtive screens, holding edit boxes
that you need to fill in. The boxes are quite a standard form version, asking
your first- and lastname, along with your contact info. But with WE loaded,
there was simply NO chance - whatsoever. The first field on the screen asked my
firstname, but landing my cursor on it, WE would read to me the "Submit"-label,
which is the last bottom line button of the screen. Tabbing once, landing on
the field for my lastname, WE reported that this field was for my Email, which
actually was the third field of the screen. If I tabbed and shift-tabbed back
and forth on the screen, WE would read the labels of fields that would be two
or three fields away from the actual one I was focusing. This even if I tabbed
very slowly through the form. OK, I thought, Yet another one o
f those totally inaccessible screens we so often are presented with. But I
have come to learn, not to stop there. So I loaded NVDA. Guess you all have
grasped the end of the story already. Sure thing, NVDA did read the fields of
that form - totally correctly - and exactly as you would have expected. It was
the matter of less than thirty seconds to fill in the form and have it
submitted, with NVDA loaded. I even tested things, running both NVDA and WE
simultaneously, to see the difference in behavior. NVDA kept steadily reading
the field-tags correctly, While WE just as stubbornly kept reading the tags
arbitrarily.
If I give my computer a cold-start, I can hit the Win-D and get to the
desktop. WE will now read the different items of my desktop, as I move up and
down. If I leave the desktop - for instance by loading Firefox from the desktop
- and then return by hitting Win-D, all I hear from WE is "No Item Selected,
List". Loading NVDA, I can leave and return to the desktop as much as I like,
and I will hear the items on the desktop read out to me. Why not with WE? Why
all this stuff about "no item selected", which isn't even true, since the
current item is being focused and selected. I know it is, because NVDA reports
it to be, and I can hit Enter, and the attached software starts. This doesn't
seem much reliable to me, for the part of Window-Eyes.
Sometimes, when starting a software, you get up the safety screen asking if
you will permit this software to make changes on your computer. When this
screen comes up, NVDA will read it, but WE does go quietly dead. The Eloquence
of WE, will not start to speak again, until you have made your choice in this
safety screen. Not even if you Alt-Tab to another screen or software. As I
said, NVDA reads the safety screen just fine.
Other times, some background software - like a security scan - will pop-up
a message on the screen. If this message in any way conflicts WE, things like
the mouse-keys of WE, stop to work. They keep dinging at you. Alt-Tabbing
through the list of software, does give you no clue. And, window-eyes did not
inform you that a background message had popped up on the screen. In many
cases, I have noticed that NVDA does work far more smoothly with these cases.
More and more, I find myself having to load NVDA several times aday, just
to perform even plain tasks, like choosing a software from off the desktop.
After having paid the upgrade price for Window-Eyes 8.2, I really don't feel
this should have been necessary. WE is being claimed to be a stabil and solid
screen reader, and it does cost several hundred dollars. Then I also feel we
are in our rights, to expect it to do its job. But when you cannot even read
the info on the desktop, or have speech through the vital parts of the security
screens, I really question the reliability of the screen reader. My hope now,
is that someone out there has a workaround for these issues. Maybe some setting
I have to change, so as to have things working properly. Further, I hope that
such workarounds will be included in upcoming shippings of the screen reader.
As it stands today, it definitely was no "right-out-of-the-box" experience to
install and run WE.
Finally, GW, why do you automatically load all those apps that ship with
the screen reader. OK, most of them, I can see will be helpful. But the ones
that are shipping, and which are supposed to make the jump from things like
Jaws easier. For most of us, this kind of apps are only in our way, since they
do change certain keystrokes. Why not have a checkbox in the installation
process, that would tell if I am migrating from Jaws. If I check this box,
which by standard could be unchecked, these extra apps wil be installed. Same
thing goes with the quickstart app, which I think could do its job in setting
things up, and then be deactivated. Just some ideas...
--
Stephen Clower
Product support specialist & App Development
GW Micro, Inc. * 725 Airport North Office Park, Fort Wayne, IN 46825
260-489-3671 * gwmicro.com
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