Hello David,
My mouse problems can show up at start-up or at any time afterwards. Trouble
is, I don't know exactly when it happens after start-up unless I happen to
want to use the mouse and I discover that the mouse is not working. When the
mouse is not working, the cursor usually appears to be working fine. Whether
the mouse is working or not, unwanted parts of the screen can suddenly
start reading, often repeating many times, such as "Network, desktop,
network, Desktop, network, desktop" and so on.
At the moment as I am writing this reply, the mouse seems to be working
alright.
I realise that this kind of unpredictable behaviour is difficult to solve
and I really appreciate your efforts to help.
Thanks a lot.
-----Original Message-----
From: David
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2020 7:40 PM
To: peter Chin ; Window-Eyes Discussion List
Subject: Re: Can’t Install Free Trial of Window Eyes
Peter,
Let's see if I get you right. Please correct me where I am off-tracked.
You start your computer, and the screen reader. For the most part, it
starts out as expected, with all mouse movements functioning. As you
keep working, all the sudden, and apparently without any further notice,
your mouse goes for a garden-party, and all the fun it leaves you is the
word "blank" when you try to control it. Did we get it right this far?
This behavior takes place whether you are in one or the other
application.. You mentioned WLM and Windows Explorer. But are they the
only places the thing happens, or does it happen in pretty much any
other software as well? And, do you have an idea, whether this takes
place after a given amount of runtime. Does it typically happen after
say five minutes working time, or is it totally out of any time frame.
Lastly, does it disappear after a while?
At this point, I will have to do a couple of wild guesses. See if that
takes us anywhere. What might be an extra question is, do you have any
other screen reader installed. That is, do you for instance have NVDA on
your computer. Sometimes this can prove a beneficial thing. NVDA has in
a number of cases, proven to be a bit more agressive in grabbing info
from the screen. And due to NVDA still being developed, it keeps up with
modern screens in a way that WinEyes not always live up to. Put it the
way, that NVDA does a quick go and get what it gets - whilst WinEyes
does go about it a bit more thoroughly, but only get so much out of the
job. Both being beneficial in their own ways. And here might be one of
the cases when the more tools will give us the better job done.
What I do get from the description you gave, the way I read it, seems to
me you have some kind of a popup window showing up on your screen. A
popup that WinEyes might not notice, but still gets crazy about. At
least your mouse might enjoy it. Such popups could be notifications
coming from other software, who needs a permission to update. Windows 7
and up, introduced us to a new measure of security, in the User Acount
Control - which will ask your permission before performing any
deep-going action on your computer, like an update or bigger altering of
your software. Now, what if your anti-virus, your email program or any
other piece of software needs to install an update. This update is of
some major concern to the operativ system, and it will popup a message
asking if you are comfortable with this software's meddling with your
system. You likely have seen this kind of message, when attempting to
install new software. OK, sometimes software have built-in popups on
their own. I am not a WLM user, so cannot speak for that one, but it
could be it has some extra fun in popping out a message window every now
and then.
Thing about such popups, is that they are not always easy to see for
WinEyes. And they go hide themselves behind any other stuff. Still the
mouse might stick with them. NVDA, though, has proven to be useful on my
system, in cases like that. It might pick up popups even when they
appear, and quite often alt-tabbing through the list of open software,
NVDA will report if it finds any open popups. If things like you
describe happens to me, I quickly press the hotkey to start NVDA, and
once it comes up, I might Alt-Tab my way around. Sometimes just starting
NVDA, and it automatically discovers and reads out the popup to me.
Funny thing is, when NVDA is active, I can get WinEyes to focus on the
popup and maybe even interact with it, something that is out of question
with WinEyes running on its own. Drawback of it all, of course is, that
you will have to deal with both screen readers chattering simultaneously
for the moment you have NVDA loaded. But you just need it for the time
of discovering what is going on. Once you have done what you need to do,
you just close down NVDA, and back to WinEyes.
The other thing that could be worth a try, is for a while to turn off
all apps in WinEyes. I am not aware which app would cause your trouble,
but it might just be worth the go.
Does your system give any pling or plung, when this misbehavior happens.
I do not mean when you press the mouse keys, but just in general. often
when a popup occurs, it might be linked with some kind of a warning
sound or tiny jingle. This to alert even sighted people, that the
computer is requesting some extra user interaction.
Again, wild guesses. Your issue might have a hundred other reasons, and
likely other listers will have good tips here. Sometimes other software
does take over the key control, kicking the screen reader out of
business. But since you tell this started a few days back, and with no
unusual activity leading up to it, I hold that to be less likely in your
case.
What comes to mind though, is for you to make sure your WinEyes has the
right keyboard layout. Please go to your WinEyes Control Panel. In the
tree of menu choices, focus
Keyboard.
Open it by hitting the Right Arrow. Now scroll down to the last of the
choices, which should say something like
Keyboard Layout.
Use your tab-key once.
In the list, choose
Window-Eyes Default.
Again tab once, and hit Enter on the button that says
Activate Layout.
Since your screen reader behaves OK in some cases, I hold this keyboard
layout very little likely, but still does not hurt to make sure things
are rightfully set up. Feel free to get back with your findings, and let
the community know if you still have no luck. Unfortunately, I have seen
certain cases when a popup blocked screen reader activity, and there was
no other way than to have two eyes interact. HP systems did have a
tendency on this, when they performed updates to the system dependent
software. But don't despair all yet, a few more workarounds could be
tried, if the issue proves to be a popup. First let's discern if that is
the case.
As for my backup script, I will get it ready for you. I wrote it for my
own usage, numerous years ago. I'll brush it up, write a quick little
get-started guide, and send it over to you. Might take a week's time,
but i'll keep it in mind. Smiles.
And in case you co't own NVDA, get it free from:
nvda-project.org
David
On 2/27/2020 5:09 AM, peter Chin wrote:
Hello David,
Thank you so much for your very extensive reply. Yes, I must admit I
didn't give enough details abou my problems. I was in a bit of a hurry
as I had several other things to be done.
First, about the mouse keys. Sometimes when I am on the desktop or in
my user folder, moving the mouse with the mouse keys does not read
anything. If I try to read current icon or line, or if I move the
mouse up or down or left to right or the other way, WE just says
"blank". lefgt or right clicking on what I think should be the icon or
folder I moved the mouse to does have some effect. This can also
happen when I am in WLM. Sometimes, however, the mouse keys move as
expected. Trouble is, I don't know when and why this happens.
Restarting WE or restarting the computer does not solve the problem
when the mouse keys do not work. I only noticed this strange behaviour
a few days ago. I was not messking around with any settings at the
time but had just started my computer. Whether the moue keys
areworking or not, WE may just start parts of the screen I am not
interested in.
As for backing up, I don't know how to back up my C drive but I have a
copy of my WE Defult folder and I have all my data files backed up. I
am not very good at writing batch files, especially for Windows, so
would be very glad to have your batch file which you mentioned.
Thanks in advance.
-----Original Message----- From: David
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2020 8:15 PM
To: peter Chin ; Window-Eyes Discussion List
Subject: Re: Can’t Install Free Trial of Window Eyes
Your mouse keys do not work as expected? Sorry to hear that. Yet, I am
afraid i do not know what exactly you mean. Is it something going on in
all applications, or is it only (at least mainly) happening in some
particular piece of software.? Are you aware when it all started, and if
so, do you have a clue what you did just prior to this behavior taking
place?
Reason I am assking, is that it might point us in the direction of
picking up a solution for you. In case you have made any updates, played
around with some settings, or installed some extra software or apps - it
might be a place to start helping you out. Could you explain, please,
what it is you expect, and what does not work?
It has been a known fact, that the mouse sometimes gets stuck in a
position on the screen. Usually this would mean one of the corners. And
why this happens might have as many answers as there are questions.
Still, whenever something show up in that posistion - like some status
message, for instance - WinEyes will read it out to you. That is because
the screen reader is doing its job, however strange that might sound.
See, the screen reader is such constructed, that it will keep an eye on
your screen, and let you know whenever some info shows up, in places
that you tell is of special interest. Placing your mouse, is one way of
telling the screen reader to watch out for updated info. Now, if your
mouse runs over and dig itself a new hole, wherever on your screen, the
screen reader will track the mouse, and determine that likely you enjoy
to have it chattering everything that the mouse "sniffs" in its stuck
position. No, I am not trying to be jokie. This is the real fact. The
big issue, and main solution, will be to have the mouse dragged loose
from its stubborn place, and tell it to behave like good tiny mice are
supposed to.
Exactly why your mouse misbehaves, will be the thing we need to guess
and play around.
Are you on a desktop, or a laptop computer? If on a laptop, could it be
that you accidentially are activating the touchpad when operating the
computer. Some computers can turn off the touchpad, and if that is the
case with yours, you might have ended up turning it back on - meaning
that every time you place your hands on the laptop, you are in the risk
of swiping the sensors of the pad, and the mouse will run like as if you
had let the cat into the room. Solutions then, could be to make sure to
deactivate the touchpad, adjust the sensitivity, or whatever features
your computer offers you. Or, simply connect a USB mouse, and hide it in
the very rear of your desk, that you don't ever get in touch with it.
Do you have the habit of once in a while backing up your system? or at
least the WinEyes profile folder? If so, probably one quick fix would be
to simply copy your backup into the profile folder - thereby rolling
your screen reader back to a point of well-behaving.
If you do not own a bakup hard drive, there are a few suggestions for
regularly being able to back up your screen reader profile, along with
other personal files and settings. First of all, the WinEyes folder
usually do not get very big. So even a cheap memory card of any size
from 1GB and up, will suffice. That is, if your computer has a memory
card slot. Otherwise, USB pen drives, again from 1GB and up, will be
something to consider. Dig deep in your desk drawer, and see if you have
some old hardware that can be put to good use here. And what if you
simply don't have either cards or pen drives? Make for yourself a
subfolder on your main hard disk. Name it something like:
My Backup.
Simply copy any stuff from all over your hard disk, that you want to
make an extra backup of, into this local space. It might prove helpful,
since you don't have to connect and disconnect anything, whenever you
want a backup. You could even make a tiny batch file, that sits on your
desktop, and whenever being called, would back up files from several
locations. Then run it once a week, or every time you think you have
made important updates and changes. It will not work for a backup of
your complete system, and not for Windows itself. it might not take care
of all backup issues. But it will do for things like your screen reader
profile and personal files.
And if you are not comfortable in writing batch files, I do have a tiny
script here, that I developed a number of years ago. It will let you set
up a list of files and locations, that can be copied in one go. It is
written outside WinEyes, meaning it can be run from anywhere, and with
whichever screen reader you prefer. Whoever wants a copy, can contact me
off-list, and I'd send it over.
Or, you could of course use an Online service for backing up, like
OneDrive or Dropbox. Unfortunately, online services are not as private
as they want you to believe, so keep that in mind. In case you have a
backup media, you might want a backup client, that automatically will
keep track of any changes. For one, Casper will be a choice to consider.
Good thing about such solution, is that you can back up your whole
system. even the Operativ System. Have used it a good deal, and
benefitted from it at the latest this last week, when my system got
screwed up, and I could simply swap disks, and be up running in no time.
OK, long message, and not sure it helped you much. But to be of more
assistance, I think we need to know more specifically what is your
issue, in its details.
David
On 2/26/2020 8:23 AM, peter Chin wrote:
es, the Window-Eyes for office still works for Windows 8.1 which I am
using. However, within the last few days it has been behaving
strangely. My mouse keys don't work properly and Window_eyes keeps
reading other parts of the screen, especially the areas where the
mouse is sitting. Any suggestions as to how to resolve the problem
will be much appreciated.
-----Original Message----- From: David via Talk
Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2020 8:12 AM
To: Window-Eyes Discussion List
Cc: David
Subject: Re: Can’t Install Free Trial of Window Eyes
Interesting. I just had a quick look. Going to
gwmicro.com
It sure looked like the site is still up. Yet, I did find nowhere to
download anything but some tutorials, and a number of videos. Well, and
then the App Central. Why I still wonder exactly which website the
assumed demo version would have been attempted downloaded from.
If the user still knows the address where the download was attempted,
either retry the download and see if the file comes out with a more
trusty size, or try search the net for another download. Of course,
someone might have a demo sitting around, Does the Office version even
work any longer? Or is all that lane closed, after the cooperation
discontinued? I did not have any demos here, only my purchased versions.
David
On 2/25/2020 12:53 AM, Sky Mundell via Talk wrote:
Actually the website is still online and it says 2020 AI Squared.
-----Original Message-----
From: Talk [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of Loy Green via Talk
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2020 3:46 PM
To: Window-Eyes Discussion List
Cc: Loy Green
Subject: Re: Can’t Install Free Trial of Window Eyes
That site has not been active for a couple of years since Freedom
Scientific
purchased ZoomText and Window Eyes.
Window Eyes is no longer available unless you get it from a former
user.----- Original Message -----
From: "Armando Vias via Talk" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Cc: "Armando Vias" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2020 5:19 PM
Subject: Can’t Install Free Trial of Window Eyes
Hey all.
This is my first post.
For some reason, I can’t install the Window Eyes Program. It says
that it
is 83 bytes. When I try to install it, my computer says that it is
corrupted. I am using a 64-bit version of Windows 10. What should I
do?
Armando
—
Armando Vias
Owner of The Blind Advocate Network
Website: https://theblindadvocate.net
Phone: (404) 4803436
Email: [email protected]
Like my page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/theblindadvocatenetwork
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/theblndadvn
“Getting advocacy results for the blind.”
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