Clarification regarding why NVDA is disabled on the log on screen on existing installs when updating?
Mobeen Iqbal
I'm hoping someone can shed some light on the following issue. When NVDA
2026 was released, changes were made to the way it works on the logon
screen. When carrying out a fresh install of NVDA, you have to
specifically enable the option for NVDA to load on the logon screen to
read out update progress for windows updates etc. This is rather
annoying but I can kind of see the logic behind the decision when it
comes to corporate environments, even though it's less than intuitive
for home users if they don't know what the option is, or forget to
enable it. The question I have is regarding existing installs. If
someone already had the option for NVDA to load on the logon screen
enabled, why isn't that setting being carried across from their previous
install? I've updated NVDA on multiple machines and the option for NVDA
to load at logon is always disabled in NVDA 2026.1.1 on both Windows 11
and Windows 10. I have to manually re-enable it. I would have thought
that the more logical approach would have been to respect the user's
choice and carry those preferences across by default if the setting was
previously enabled?
Also, a more intuitive approach may have been to prompt people regarding
the change to the logon behaviour. These days, computers are quiet
enough on startup so we need as much speech feedback as we can get in my
humble opinion. If people aren't aware that updates are under way, they
may think their PC has crashed and turn the PC off and back on to
rectify the issue, when in reality it's installing updates and should
not be turned off. We've had 3 computers in need of repair in recent
months because people have panicked and turned the computers off at the
wrong time whilst Windows was updating and they had no speech feedback
from NVDA. If other screen readers like Jaws have the option to speak on
the logon screen enabled by default and NVDA has had the option enabled
for years, I'm struggling to understand why lack of feedback on the
logon screen had to become the default for existing installs?
Very best wishes,
Mo.
Quentin Christensen
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Quentin Christensen
Mobeen Iqbal
Hi Quentin.
Thanks for your email. I'd be happy to provide more details via
GitHub, but the problem I have is that there is little in common
amongst the various machines apart from the fact that some were on
Windows 11 25H2, and some were on windows 10 22H2. Users are
always running with full admin privileges. What I can say for
certain is that the behaviour is definitely consistent i.e the
option is checked before updating to use NVDA on the logon screen,
but it is always disabled after the update completes and I have to
manually re-enable it. The machines do seem to be running
variations of NVDA 2025, they're not all on the same version of
2025. That's why I mentioned the prompt option, perhaps NVDA could
prompt the user in case the option is disabled to re-enable it as
Jaws does after every update is installed. As I said in my
previous email, the risk of corruption to Windows is much higher
if users don't have any feedback at all which is what's happening
at the moment by default. It would have been much more intuitive
in my humble opinion to prompt users to disable the option after
the update and leave it unchanged by default and respect the
user's preferences. It sounds like this should be the case but
there certainly seems to be an issue somewhere with the changes
that were introduced in 2026. It's not affected any previous
versions as far as I know.
Very best wishes,
Mo.
Sean Randall
I’ve not been a part of the issue discussion, but it certainly seems to me that NVDA speaking at logon is just as, if not more impactful than, reminding users about restarting after an update. NVDA is all about empowerment and giving access to those who mightn’t be able to access more expensive solutions. NV Access has come a long way in adding really strong training material and resources that aid in adjusting what was perceived as a very developer-oriented user’s manual into something more readable for the rest of the world. Mobeen is absolutely correct in that we can’t rely on self-test beeps or spinning hard drives of times gone bye, it therefore seems a no-brainer to ensure that during the installation or upgrade process, a simple explanation for users is put in place and the options clearly explained.
This could be managed very easily during an install, the title of a dialog could be all someone needed, i.e. “Keep NVDA talking at the log-on screen” etc.
Just my opinion, of course: I do believe it’s this sort of small thing that matters to a wide variety of our less technical userbase.
Sean.
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Mobeen Iqbal
Hi Sean.
I totally agree. We support customers all over the world with their technology. The majority of our customers are not very technical so aren't even aware that the option has been disabled by default until the PC next does an update and they call us to say there's no speech at all and in some cases, that windows has been corrupted because they've turned the PC off and on goodness knows how many times. I wasn't aware until my machines started exhibiting the same behaviour and I started looking at user's machines to see if they had the same issue. Windows 11's error recovery isn't as care free as previous windows versions it seems and it seems to have a habit of corrupting much more especially if it's interrupted during a large significant update. The PC is then left in a recovery state and often boot loops and we end up doing a repair install. If the option is left enabled in Jaws even as part of a new install, surely NVDA could follow the same logic and just have a prompt to say would you like the functionality disabled? Just my opinion of course, I am sure there were other reasons behind the decision. As I said, the enable speech at logon option has been the default for years and no one seems to have complained, at least not on the lists. Maybe the welcome dialogue could be displayed so at least the options to run NVDA before and after logon is bought to people's attention, similar to the jaws startup wizard which is displayed after every update. Hopefully these comments will be taken on board.
Very best wishes,
Mo.
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