So UIA won't use code injection at all, and just use UIA?

Hi,

Ideally, that's the plan Microsoft is gearing towards (from what I can gather from a recent GitHub discussion).

Cheers,

Joseph

Hi,

From 2016, Windows App Essentials checked for Windows version requirement to align with Windows as a Service (WaaS) policy and schedule. The idea is that people will upgrade to supported Windows 10/11 releases before the prior version going out of support. This works with consumers, but I do know that it may not be so for enterprises with machines managed through mechanisms such as Group Policy.

Until earlier this year, I ended suport for a Windows 10 feature update months prior to end of consumer suppot. This was because of semi-annual channel (SAC) releases, and by the time I ended support for a feature update, people were asked to upgrade to next+next release. For example, the add-on ended support or Windows 10 Version 20H2 (October 2020 Update) in January 2022 since Microsoft asked people to upgrade to next (21H1) + next (21H2) releases. Now that semi-annual channel was replaced by general availability channel (GAC) in 2021 with annual feature updates, I decided to extend feature update support to last until end of consumer support or shortly before. For Version 21H2 (November 2021 Update), prior to this change, I would have ended support for it in February 2023, but with the described change, support for this feature update will end by end of May 2023.

The reason for basing support duration on consumer support is due to differences between H1 and H2 support duration. When SAC was the mainstream, YYH1 releases were supported for 18 months for both consumers and enterprises, whereas YYH2 received 18 months of support for consumers with an additional year for enterprises. Therefore, I decided to stick with 18 months of support for consistency across feature updates. Even with no more SAC releases, I continue to abide by consumer support duration, as the additional year provided by Microsoft is meant to be a transitional period for IT departments to upgrade machines to newer releases.

At one point I thought about offering an extended support version of Windows App Essentials add-on for enterprises. This version will be based on the last supported version for a given feature update and will receive updates timed with stable NVDA releases or at least once per quarter. For example, for Windows 10 21H2 users, the last version planned to be compatible with it is 23.05 or May 2023 release. Version 23.05.1, the first extended support release, might be released in July or when NVDA 2023.x release occurs by then. The last extended support version for a feature update will be released just prior to end of enterprise support (May 2024 for 21H2). This plan may or may not be adopted. Regardless of release of extended support versions, Windows App Essentials add-on will support Windows 10 series as a whole until at least October 14, 2025.

As for Windows version requirement for add-ons: I am doing this to provide consistency for someone wishing to maintain add-ons such as Resource Monitor. Originally I didn't plan to release updates for unmaintained add-ons, but with the impending end of support for Windows 7 and 8.1 from Microsoft, I decided to provide compatibility checks for these add-ons for consistency. I went with the latest Windows 10 release (22H2) as that feature update is being offered to everyone at this point.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Joseph

Further to Joseph’s announcement about his update. My son wanted to know whether the update could include the ability to assign an action to an unassigned gesture. E.g  could the user enable a quadruple tap on screen to close a window just like Alt F4 does. We weren’t  sure whether this was within the scope that you (Joseph) have control over within your add on. Thanks.

Hi,

Yes and no (note that feature set for 23.01 is frozen). Yes in that any input gesture (touch, keyboard, braille, etc.) can emulate keyboard keys or a combination of them. This is why on a braille display, you can perform say, Windows+D command using braille display hardware (reminder to self: document the internals of a braille display driver at some point; trivia: I helped bring support for HumanWare BrailleNote Apex to NVDA almost a decade ago). This works great if you are focused on an app and the control of interest (sometimes termed "navigator object") is indeed focused on an app and emulating key combinations do cause the desired thing to happen such as closing an app.

At the same time, touchscreen support is not really tied to system focus; touch (or for that matter, mouse) support requires moving around the screen and visiting controls that may never receive focus. In some cases, you will be able to "use" two locations at once, each on different apps - system focus might be on one app while navigator object is on the other app. Touch support utilizes navigator object to tell you where you are, which may not necessarily be where the system focus is (two related settings (or rather, three) exist to tether navigator object and review cursor to system focus and caret, respectively).

Another big reason for me saying "yes and no" is because not all apps can be closed through Alt+F4 combination. At least one app assigns a different keyboard shortcut for closing its main window because Alt+F4 is used for a different purpose. This is why it is a bit difficult to generalize Alt+F4 as "close app" command, and if we factor in the fact that NVDA can review two different controls at once, it becomes harder to simply create an action that will do things via touch alone, more so if emulating another input mechanism is sought.

Whether or not the proposal here (touch actions and expanded keyboard shortcuts) coming to life remains to be seen, but what I wrote above is what we have at this time.

Note that Enhanced Touch Gestures add-on is not really maintained - think of this add-on as in "deep maintenance mode" where the add-on is updated as necessary. I ended active maintenance for this add-on as of April 2022 but came back to prepare the add-on to end support for Windows 8.1 as no-one has volunteered to maintain this add-on in the meantime (this applies to vast majority of add-on updates I'm releasing these days as I ended active maintenance for them last year). My decision to end maintenance for these add-ons mostly came because I want to devote more time to writing, mostly in the context of academics (I am a graduate student, one semester away from adding an M.A. to my name); another reason: health - I'm not as energetic as I used to be (say, three to five years ago), more so after the inevitable happened and a guest in the form of a virus came to my house last week (I was last boosted in September but I did experience sore throat and fever; feeling way better now thanks to a combination of medications and food). Thankfully I did everything related to upcoming add-on releases before Christmas, so no loss of work (upcoming releases were planned prior to me being confined to my room).

Cheers,

Joseph