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.