God has failed him and Windows has failed me

Hi,
Why do Windows laptops get so hot?
The short answer is: I don't know. The long answer: macs generally have better hardware. My HP laptop does that too. It can get quite hot sometimes, especially when I'm multi-tasking.
Microsoft throws updates at me when I least expect it.
You can choose to schedule those, or you can turn off automatic updates altogether. I've never tried to do this in Windows 11 actually, since I haven't found the updates annoying yet. If you go to 'Windows updates' under settings, there are options to configure this.
Why aren't their keyboards that great?
I have the same question. Windows laptop keyboards are OK, but generally nothing special. They're just there. It's pretty hard these days to find a laptop with a nice L-shaped Enter key for example. My Enter key is just a regular rectangle. I don't mind it as long as the system overall works.
Why does the battery die so quickly?
Mac has better hardware than Windows. The problem is with Windows, every manufacturer is competing, so some will have better specs and performance than others. But macs do seem to have generally better battery life across the board.
NVDA sometimes stops working when I need it.
What are you doing when NVDA does that? If you're navigating the system, that might be Explorer crashing, which can make NVDA crash on the rare occasion. A big fault with Windows. I wish the explorer were better. There are external options like Total Commander to navigate your file structure and the system, but personally I didn't like that program.
Microsoft Word can be a pain with screen readers.
What are you having issues specifically with MS Word? JAWS and Narrator work a bit better than NVDA in Word. But there are keystrokes to get to areas and implement stuff, and JAWS has this virtual ribbon feature, which makes Office programs behave like programs with regular menus, but maybe you didn't have access to JAWS. If you can't do something, google it. There may well be a keystroke.
And waking up from sleep mode? Takes forever! Sometimes Windows forgets my face or fingerprint for logging in. And those big chargers? Why do Windows laptops need them when Macs don't?
Again, software and hardware shortcomings. Windows isn't perfect.
The sound quality isn't good either. Even the microphones sound bad. Unfortunately, it's luck of the draw as to internal microphones. On my last HP the internal microphone was awful, even with all the enhancements turned off. However on this machine, the internal microphone is just as good as my external which is having problems long story. I would rather not use an external microphone if the internal mic gets the job done, and on this machine it does. In fact, I'm not using my external mic for calls on my laptop at all now, since my internal mic is good enough quality. As for sound in general. I gave tips on your other thread about things to try.
And why do fancy Windows laptops come with so much unnecessary software?
Good question. Personally I would recommend all Windows users take an hour or so when they get their new laptop and uninstall all the bloatware, and turn off sound enhancements, and turn the screen lock feature off so it doesn't keep kicking in at random times. Bloatware includes Microsoft Automated Power Manager which screws up your sound. And make sure power mode is set to 'best performance' under the power, battery and sleep settings. Windows Defender, Microsoft's built-in anti-virus software is perfectly sufficient for handling virus threats. Get rid of Norton or whatever. Stuff like that just cloggs up your system.
And if a blind person needs to change something in the BIOS? It's a big hassle.
See my post on using PowerShell to configure the BIOS.
https://www.applevis.com/forum/windows/using-powershell-configure-bios-windows
It's doable without sighted help for an HP machine, and some but not all other models. Your other comments which I haven't address demonstrate Windows' hardware imperfections which I've already covered.
Hope that helps.

I've been a windows user for as long as I remember so to me this stuff isn't an issue.

I just uninstall all the stuff I don't need and get on with my day.

With the macs you're paying a lot more money but as far as I know; the hardware is a lot better, I don't really care for the expencive stuff as my £600 I think it was, hp laptop does what I need it to do.

It could also be that you're not really giving it a try, I "tried" mac for a week before getting a refund, But I didn't really, I just found things I didn't like and it kind of scared me off.

Mac has great hardware, bad accessibility. If only they could get together and make a beautiful baby... RIP bootcamp.

Disclaimer: In regards to my subject. Yeah, I said it. Accept this.

I will try my very best to reiterate here what I posted in your other thread. Without getting out my soapbox.

Sleep mode

Not sure what is happening on your end, and while i am not denying your situation, I can and will say that I, too, have a HP laptop, a 2023 model, and my PC goes into and out of sleep mode faster than my MBP ever did. Even when it was brand new. Call me old school, but I do not bother with bio metrics and instead just type a password and/or pin.

Battery

Simply put, Macs do better with battery because the Unix/Linux kernel is a far more energy efficient operating system than whatever Windows is running. It is, at least in part, why Windows has battery profiles. Speaking of which, if you want a battery experience similar to Mac, put your battery profile to "Best Power Efficiency". While I agree with Tara that Best Performance will give you the most out of your UX, Best Power Efficiency will blow your mind with how long your battery lasts on a single charge.

Of course, this is assuming your battery is not defective. . .

Sound and Keyboard Quality

I wish I could understand your issue better. It sounds like you got a really nice Laptop (on paper), and really nice paper weight (in reality). The sound on my HP is the best I have ever personally experienced on a personal laptop. And the keyboard on here is quite comparable to my old MBP. I dunno, perhaps the newer Macs have better keyboards, but from my experience, I struggle to find a difference. Both are incredibly responsive, and sound about the same when typing on them. Hell, they both feel the same, that is to say square and/or rectangular buttons with a glossy surface.

NVDA

This one I can agree with you, however, there is an add-on fix. There is a nice little add-on called Tony's Enhancements for NVDA. One beautiful feature is the ability to perma-set NVDA's resource priority. I run mine in "Real Time", which is similar to how VO works with macOS.

Bottom line, it sounds like you ended up with a bad piece of tech, or at the very least, an overpriced piece of cheap tech, and I am sorry for your experience, but don't follow in the footsteps of everyone else who claims that Windows is the worst OS out there, or that PCs are horrible and should all be fire bombed. Some of us have been fortunate enough to end up with really great PC devices and are much better off as a result.

Both are spot on.
As far as why aren't PC keyboards that good? I think that comes down to the beholder, because I've never been particularly picky about the keyboard. Heck, it's better than texting on an old school flip phone, and there are a decent number of us who worked through that before the iPhone was a thing. lol So long as I can type and do what I need to do, fine, we're all good. My 13 inch Dell doesn't have an applications key, (that brings up the menu that sighted people get when they right click)... no problem. Sharpkeys exists and works really well. On the Dell they went for the slightly odd arrow keys where the left and right are normal sized, but up and down are only half as wide. Slightly odd, but after a few minutes I got used to it. Dell has a nice little shortcut to let me use function keys as standard without having to go in to the bios. So, I couldn't be happier with the keyboard.
Sound... yes, this is an odd one. I'm also not an audiophile, so am not all that critical, but this issue of the volume lowering and raising is annoying. Does it keep me from doing what I want or need to do? No. Do I hope I can find a fix? You bet! But assuming that happens, I don't feel like sound was ever that much better on a mac than what it is with this or just about any other laptop I've ever owned. As far as microphones, I would never use internals for anything more than skype. I have much better audio gear so for recording anything serious I would go through and hook all that up.

I agree with Lottie in almost everything
I also own a surfase laptop 4 for my job and I bought it after getting rid off my first, only and last apple Macbok air 2019 which had exactly the same issues you hate about windows.

I love apple's hardwear, microphones, speakers (were amacing) and built-in apps just like calendar, Safari and Mail, butmy trouble was with pages, numbers and the inaccessibility of MS office with voiceover to have a nice professionl document with alignment, font style, and all those things that are a nightmare with voiceover on the mac.
Regarding the sleep situation, I just had the same borring issue with my macbook; when ever I put it to sleep and came back to wake it up after an hour or more, the thing was dead, the screen was black (I have some sight) and it didn't do a thing before I have to shoot it down to start it from the beginning, which always made me lose my work.
Another thing that was a nightmare with macOS, was the OCR lack of thing. With JAWS (i don't like NVDA even when I use it for certan ocations) I have an OCR tool with it since like 5 years ago, so when ever I have to read a pdf, which is everyday, at all tmes, I just start the JAWS built-in tool to convert pdf with OCR, and I have just to wait some seconds, maybe 2 minutes if the document is long enough, and biola! everything is accesible, not as in macOS in which I have to get finereader to do so.
As Lottie, I also love the smoothness of the surfase laptop 4 keyboard which is the greatest laptop-keyboard I ever owned.

In conclusion: I know that MacBooks are great for certain things, but at a office-drafting-legal environment was not the best option for me. Hope someday it will because I love apple products.

I have an hp laptop and the sound is fine for me, I actually don't know what top of the top sound sounds like and probably wouldn't be able to hear it because I have some hearing issues but it's always interested me when people say flac sounds better than mp3 and so on, I've not truely tested it but to me they sounded the same. As for the Iphone speakers, honestly,, I'd not be surprised if they can go lowder than your laptop so if they can get that loud then you've got a very good laptop there.

I've owned both Windows and Mac machines, and generally the sound quality of my Mac was better than any windows machine I ever had. Nobody really debates the quality of Mac
s hardware, just their accessibility. As I said before, Apple's priorities, including their accessibility priorities, seem to be aimed toward their mobile devices. It
s not that Apple doesn't care about accessibility; if you want to know what not caring really looks like, try using a Nintendo Switch. Rather, accessibility on the Mac has taken a back seat to accessibility on mobile.

HI!
Look, I think that posts like these don't make much sense, because you will always find someone who tells you that Mac is better, or that Windows is better.

For example, I used a Mac for almost a year, and I assure you that rather than return to that hell, I would go and sell potatoes at the market and would never deal with technology again.
Because, it's always the same thing: the audio of a Mac is inimitable, it's the best.
The hardware of a Mac? With what it costs, it's normal for it to be the best.
And yes, I agree with you, Windows laptops have an absurd problem, the keyboards are often not that great, or the manufacturers remove some very important keys such as the applications key... and you have to use software to remap the keys , or even buy an external keyboard.
Folly?
Yes, absolutely.

However, I don't agree with other things you write: for example, NVDA works very well for me and above all with Word there is no problem.
Voiceover for Mac is so far behind in comparison that we will soon remove the name screen reader from it.
Not to mention PDFs, did you know that I can even fill them out on Windows? And for me a pdf manual is exactly like an html file.

With a Mac you don't have any software that can help you with mathematics, for example for students, and you don't have any program for broadcasting, i.e. managing a web radio.

When I want to translate a text, I simply press a combination of keys, because NVDA allows me to do so.
Have you ever looked at how many add-ons are available for NVDA?
Or, do we want to talk about braille and the disastrous state it is in for Mac?

I wrote all these things to you not to make you change your mind.
Absolutely.
If you feel comfortable with the Mac, use it, it's absolutely right.
But I tried to make you understand that for me it's the exact opposite, even if, especially with regards to the hardware, I agree with you.
Windows isn't perfect.
For me, it's just the least worst.

Is someone to make a political comment, then we can bask in the glow of a true dumpster fire! 😇

In pretty much every post ever regarding PCs vs Macs, there is one universal truth; The Windows enthusiasts swear by the software, while the Mac enthusiasts swear by the hardware.

Think, on, that! 😀

I've got this Asus g15 gaming laptop I splurged on a couple years ago and, other than the silly lack of a webcam the hardware is great! Speakers are almost macbook pro level (noticeably not there but the difference isn't a ton), the keyboard is my favorite I've ever used, the mics are great for anything other than a podcast or professional work and might even do there in a pinch if they absolutely had to. Granted I paid something like $1200 for it (not 12000 as I typed first, good grief!) for it, on a pretty good sale, so I'm sure that plays a part.

Oohhh I am a little jealous, but only a little. My HP is not a high-end gaming machine, but only due to the limited refresh rate of the display.

However, I have an old Asus gaming desktop monitor that I used to use with my Xbox back when i was in college, and if I hook it up to this laptop via HDMI, it can handle the games I am into, which are primarily fighting games.

Thank the gods for the ability to have multiple displays. 😀

I need to open this thing up and clean it out because the fans are spinning up way too much and it's running significantly hotter than it used to. Plus from having it plugged in so much I've basically shot my battery to hell, it used to give me 8 hours reliably, with a screen reader and multiple tabs and every day processing needs. With my games I'd get three or four hours, obviously less when I have the GPU on. Now I'm lucky to get four hours battery life even just web browsing, I know batteries deteriorate but this is excessive haha. Granted I'm usually plugged in, which is probably why I have this problem now, but it's still annoying. Even so it's a great machine and you definitely do get what you pay for unfortunately.

This dell, when it came out, was running I would imagine pretty close to that $1000 mark. It's an 11th gen i7 with 16 gb ram and a 256 gb ssd, plus sd card slot, so I'm set. I didn't even have to pay $300 for it though. Now that my technical issues are solved, it's a beast and can do everything I want or need. Decent battery too.

I just buy an old business-model Dell with a 3gHz or better processor every few years, and slap a different OS on it. Not that I'm doing much more than web browsing. I'm a cheapskate and a scrounger. Please don't step on me.

@OldBear
In my defense, this HP was purchased for me by my VR councilor as I am now technically back in school, and my 11 year old Macbook Pro was not going to cut it. The irony is the MBP still works, is running macOS 12.7.2if memory serves, but these days its more of a backup machine than anything else.

@Maldalain
Agreed. I would consider a newer Mac computer if Boot Camp still worked with the new 'M-series' Macs.

Believe that.

So, bet you guys forgot aboutt DocuScann didn't you? Install that and you have accessible PDF on Mac.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/docuscan-plus/id432595763?mt=12

Nah, I have it on my old MBP. Used to use it when I was in college. True, it is not bad. . . for reading PDF files. Not so much for filling one out, however.