Hi all,
I'm running the latest stable version of Windows 11 and have noticed that when I start searching for something in the start menu, JAWS and NVDA announce that there is "web content" and I'm sometimes jumped out of browse mode/forms mode, making it difficult to continue typing or browsing through results. This happens on my personal laptop but not on my work machine, at least not yet.
I've had a look through the settings but can't seem to find anything that might be related to this.
Anyone else experiencing this and have any idea how to prevent this from happening?
Comments
Clarify
Hi,
Confused do you mean when you press the windows key? At that point it should say" search box edit" or at least it does with JAWS. You are not in forms mode it is just an edit box. If that is what you mean then using JAWS no not having this issue.
Clarification
When I first press the Windows key, JAWS does say "search box edit" as expected and at first I can type in there ok, however after entering a couple of letters I'm thrown out of that mode and into some kind of web content area. The results are still there, but I have to manually go back to forms mode in order to be able to access them, and it's often difficult to' get focus back to that search box.
Yes, this is not new
Since the start of win11, there has been web content in search results, and in initial days, you would end up in a randum bing result page if you arrowed down enough in the windows search results. What was different back then was that NVDA was good at holding on to it's focus mode, not letting it go unless it really had to.
Now a days, NVDA seems to jump out of focus mode even before I am done typing what I want to search. It's extreamly annoying and causes loss of productivity.
i believe an issue on NVDA Github repo has been already submitted on this. If you are facing the same issue, perhaps go there and add your comment saying 'You face the same issue', which helps them really gage importance of this issue, and prioritize accordingly.
clasic shell works.
I'd highly recommend it, it makes windows like xp so instead of just a start menu, you'd have menus.
I honestly prefer the windows 11 search but it's on and off when it comes to working correctly.
Resolution without the need to install Classic Shell
1. The latest release of JAWS 2025 has fixed it. In fact, it was fixed for JAWS 2025 few months ago.
2. With NVDA, make sure you're using V2025.1.2, and install the following add-on on top of it: https://github.com/josephsl/wintenApps/releases/download/25.06/wintenApps-25.06.1.nvda-addon
Re: Resolution without the need to install Classic Shell
Thanks for the NVDA add-on recommendation, I'll give that a try. However with JAWS, I'm definitely running the latest version of 2025 and this issue is still happening for me.
Re re: Resolution
Welcome. All I can say is that NVDA 2025.1.2 with that updated Win App Essentials doesn't have it. You are right about JAWS. It might exhibit that behavior even with the FS fix.
The "new start menu experience"
Glad to know it has been addressed. The so-called "new start menu experience" that rolled out recently adds some kind of UWP web nonsense that you'redropped into when cursoring up from the search box. On ARM, NVDA crashes completely when cursoring up. I've learned only to use the start menu for pinned apps. Otherwise, I hit Win+I if I'm looking for settings or win+E if I'm looking for files.
A ticket was submitted on NVDA when it rolled out, so they must have found a way to cope with it. But I'm definitely going to try out that file explorer alternative as well, just because.
It still shows web stuff for me.
I uninstalled the addon posted above because it said that the functionality of it had been mostly added to NVDA now, but the windows start thing still hasn't been fixed. I honestly prefer it over clasic shell so will instal the addon and use it until it becomes unusable and recommend others do the same.
It's a shame, this will discourage teachers from recommending NVDA to kids or kids wanting to try it, pretty hard to recommend a product that doesn't get a basic function of windows to work correctly.
Re: It still shows web stuff for me
@Brad What do you mean? The functionality will be in NVDA 2025.2, not the latest 2025.1.2. So it's in the latest alpha, not the latest official release. And what's the point about not recommending NVDA? If so, the issue is also present in the latest JAWS 2025 release. So you shouldn't recommend JAWS, or even Windows. For the record, NVDA 2025.1.2, along with the mentioned add-on, handles this situation much more elegantly than the latest JAWS 2025 release.
Ah, ok.
It'll be nice to actually be able to use my start menu again.
As for not recommending NVDA, I didn't say I didn't recommend it; I said that teachers wouldn't recommend it to their students in its current state.
Re: Ah, ok
@Brad Still don't understand what's wrong with NVDA's current state.
I'm still using an older version of NVDA
I had a bizarre issue installing and running NVDA 2025.1.1. For some bizarre reason, it kept reverting my speech to the "no speech" option. Every single time I boot it up. Frustrated the crap out of me, so now I'm using the old 2024.X.X version for the time being.
Sorry if this is not the right place for this, but since everybody here is talking about NVDA and the start menu, thought I would pitch in my two cents. Which, by the way, I've not had NVDA crash on me with the start menu.
Yet ...
Are you using an add-on for speech?
That NVDA issue is certainly a strange one for me. The only thing I can think is if you're using an add-on to provide additional voices for example and that add-on isn't supported in 2025.1?
You would have got a warning about that before installing the update though.
Microsoft speech platform
Think the voice I was using was zira Pro. Regardless, even after rebooting, and setting it to SAPI 5, and Microsoft David, and rebooting NVDA again, it still ended up on the no speech option. Had to use Windows narrator to figure all of this out, of course.
It's all good now, however, as I mentioned above I reverted back to the previous version of NVDA I was using, which was 2024.X.X.
@Amir Soleimani.
what's wrong, at the moment, is that the windows start menu doesn't work consistently. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
@Brad
What exactly do you mean, when you say that sometimes the start menu works, and sometimes it does not?
Upon reviewing these posts, I have come to realize that, I don't seem to be experiencing what you all seem to be experiencing. That, or I'm just numb to it all by now. Lol
@Brian.
Sometimes if I search for something using the start menu it will work with no issues, other times it wil do that thing where it goes out of the search box and treats key presses as if you were on a webpage, so if you typed and e for example,it will say, no next edit box or something like that.
Ahhhhhhhhhh, ok!
Well, now I understand why I am not experiencing what you all are experiencing. I do, not, use Windows Search, ever. I believe, the reason you're getting web content, is because they integrated Bing into it. I imagine for cited folks, it's amazing, but for us, not so much.
Although, now I am curious, I wonder if I put the little search thing on the taskbar, and you search that way, instead of through the start menu, if I'll have any different results than what you are experiencing?
Food for thought, I suppose…
Odd though
Checked and on the latest windows 11 as far as updates go and using JAWS2023. I've never had this issue. Just tried now and it works as expected all the time.