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IMPORTANT: version 22.12 add-on releases from Joseph Lee will be the last releases to support old NVDA and Windows releases

Joseph Lee
 

Hello NVDA community,

Hope you are staying safe and healthy these days, and for folks tuned to it, hope you are enjoying the World Cup.

I’m writing to provide an update on my add-on releases, specifically what will happen with my add-ons within the next six weeks:

Earlier I announced that, effective January 3, 2023, most of my add-ons (actively maintained or not) will require Windows 10 or later. I’m indeed going through with this plan, seeing that Microsoft will end support for Windows 7 and 8.1 on January 10, 2023 (extended security updates for Windows 7, extended support for Windows 8.1). I’m also adding that, effective January 2023, all of my add-ons will require NVDA 2022.4 or later provided that the upcoming NVDA release is made available to everyone by then.

Because I know that some folks are still using older NVDA and/or Windows releases, I will release a “ deep maintenance” versions of the following add-ons in the next few days (version: 22.12):

  • Enhanced Touch Gestures
  • GoldWave
  • Object Location Tones
  • ObjPad
  • Resource Monitor
  • Sound Splitter
  • StationPlaylist

The following add-ons will also receive a December 2022 release:

  • Add-on Updater (exempt from Windows 10 requirement in January 2023, updated localizations)
  • Event Tracker (new feature)
  • Office Desk (compatibility update)
  • Windows App Essentials (various changes)

For add-on releases marked as “deep maintenance”: I’m doing this as no-one has stepped up to maintain these add-ons at this time as I have ended maintenance for them in March 2022. I am still looking for maintainers for these add-ons.

Preview of 22.12 add-on releases:

  • Most add-ons will feature localization and compatibility updates.
  • Build process changes.
  • Event Tracker: a new unassigned command will be added to let you view the last 100 events recorded by NVDA (contributed by Thiago Seus).
  • Office Desk: future NVDA releases will improve search field detection, including in Microsoft 365 applications such as Word and Excel (backstage view, to be exact). Version 22.12 of this add-on will ask NVDA to take care of search field detection if using development builds of NVDA.
  • Windows App Essentials: a complete list of releases and builds supported by the add-on will be shown if trying to install the add-on on unsupported Windows releases. If using Windows 11 22H2 beta, build 22623 will be required, and the ability to toggle UIA notification announcement through “report Notifications” setting in NVDA’s object presentation panel is deprecated and will be removed in a future add-on release (led to confusing experiences for users).

 

In addition to newer Windows and NVDA requirements, version 23.01 (January 2023) will or may feature:

  • Resource Monitor and Sound Splitter: updates to psutil dependency (latest version cannot be used due to that release requiring a DLL file that NVDA does not include).
  • Add-on Updater: maybe the ability to show what’s new message for add-on updates if present (cannot be localized and no message for development releases, sorry).
  • Windows App Essentials: significantly reduced add-on scope as NVDA 2022.4 includes accessible drag and drop support which was a part of the add-on for some time.

 

A big note: my announcement should not be seen as NVDA ending support for Windows 7 and 8.1; that’s up to NV Access to decide and inform you. My announcement pertains to my add-ons. At this point, my advice is to switch to Windows 10 or 11 (if possible).

Cheers,

Joseph
Joseph Lee
 

Hi al,

One important follow-up: GoldWave add-on 22.12 will be the last release to support GoldWave 5.x.

Cheers,

Joseph
Brian's Mail list account
 

All sounds very logical. Does anyone know if Microsoft intend to still make available the anti virus definitions updates for windows7/8 after the extended support date?
I do intend to keep a couple of instances of 7 going for productivity reasons on older software which has no windows 10 or 11 equivalent any more, due to the investment in the ecosystem. I'll not bore you with details.
Of course I assume then that your add-ons that will need the newer operating systems will not be offered on a machine with the wrong OS?

I'd certainly not expect any development of extra features for old operating systems, after all there are still xp machines around running older versions of nvda etc, and whatever you may think about that, it does happen.

Brian

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Lee" <joseph.lee22590@...>
To: <nvda@nvda.groups.io>
Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2022 8:44 AM
Subject: Re: [nvda] IMPORTANT: version 22.12 add-on releases from Joseph Lee will be the last releases to support old NVDA and Windows releases


Hi al,

One important follow-up: GoldWave add-on 22.12 will be the last release to support GoldWave 5.x.

Cheers,

Joseph
Gene
 

Virus definitions won't be released for Microsoft Security Essentials after some date in January 2023.

Gene

On 11/26/2022 5:44 AM, Brian's Mail list account via groups.io wrote:
All sounds very logical. Does anyone know if Microsoft intend to still make available the anti virus definitions updates for windows7/8 after the extended support date?
I do intend to keep a couple of instances of 7 going for productivity reasons on older software which has no windows 10 or 11 equivalent any more, due to the investment in the ecosystem. I'll not bore you with details.
Of course I assume then that your add-ons that will need the newer operating systems will not be offered on a machine with the wrong OS?

I'd certainly not expect any development of extra features for old operating systems, after all there are still xp machines around running older versions of nvda etc, and whatever you may think about that, it does happen.

Brian
Joseph Lee
 

Hi all,

Two important updates:

  • NVDA requirement: at the moment NV Access folks are working on a bug fix that may end up becoming part of NVDA 2022.4. Therefore, I will change the minimum version requirement for January releases to NVDA 2022.3 instead, with provisions to change this to 2022.4 once it is released to everyone. This is done for consistency across my add-ons.
  • Windows version requirement: although I did note that my add-ons will require Windows 10 or later from January onwards, I left one thing out: exactly which Windows 10 release to use (as at least three feature updates are being supported in various channels). And that version is: 2022 Update a.k.a. Version 22H2. To give time for people to upgrade to the latest supported Windows 10 or 11 release, I will not change the minimum Windows version to Windows 10 2022 Update until February at the earliest but no later than around the time NVDA 2023.1 beta 1 is released. There is another reason: the "unsupported Windows release" message will change across my add-ons, and I want to give translators plenty of time to translate the new messages (the new message will resemble that of Windows Ap Essentials). In summary, please upgrade to 2022 releases of Windows 10 or 11 (again, Add-on Updater will continue to support older Windows releases so folks on older Windows releases can continue to receive updates for other add-ons).

Thanks.

Cheers,

Joseph
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