NVDA's Default Shortcut

[Richard Wells]

I looked for this in the user guide, but it is not there. The default
desktop properties for NVDA looks like this:

"C:\Program Files\NVDA\nvda_slave.exe" launchNVDA -r

I understand "C:\Program Files\NVDA\, but what is the purpose of
nvda_slave.exe" launchNVDA -r?

Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks

[Patrick Le Baudour]

Hi,


from a recent discussion on github, it seems it was implemented due to
the fact that in old versions of windows, the desktop shorcuts wouldn't
launch when using the hotkey if it was already running. Since the
problem seems to only concern versions of windows that are not supported
anymore, they are considering getting rid of it, but there is probably
some testing to be done to make sure there is no unintended
consequences, as unlikely as it may seem.

-- Patrick LB

[Sean Randall]

The slave process is a small executable which I presume checks for an existing running copy of NVDA and cleanly restarts it when you run this shortcut, rather than allowing multiple copies to be triggered.
Not enttirely sure why you need that - I just restart the portables with the regular NVDA.exe, but I'm sure there's a reason and a clever developer will doubtless explain soon.
Thanks

Sean


On 17 May 2026, at 03:10, Richard Wells <richwe...@gmail.com> wrote:

I looked for this in the user guide, but it is not there. The default desktop properties for NVDA looks like this:

"C:\Program Files\NVDA\nvda_slave.exe" launchNVDA -r

I understand "C:\Program Files\NVDA\, but what is the purpose of nvda_slave.exe" launchNVDA -r?

Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks

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[Noelia]

Hello:

For an appropriate answer, I advice you to track the discussion on the following issue:

https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/issues/11681

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/nvaccess.org/d/msgid/nvda-users/463EFC57-CA43-47F3-9F63-94E880677D6F%40seanrandall.me.