NVDA community add-on notice (IMPORTANT): parting ways with Windows App Essentials, end of support countdown in effect (add-on end of life date: October 14, 2025)

[joseph....@gmail.com]

Hello NVDA community,

The following NVDA add-on notice applies if you are using Windows App Essentials add-on:

This is Joseph Lee, a PhD student at University of Colorado Boulder, occasional NVDA code contributor, and the creator of Windows App Essentials NVDA add-on. In 2025, I announced the impending end of life of Windows App Essentials add-on, asking folks to uninstall the add-on if using NVDA 2025.2 and later. Further, I announced a few weeks ago that the add-on will become end of life in October, specifically on October 14, 2025 to coincide with the final regular Windows 10 cumulative update release date.

For the last ten years, Windows App Essentials was an important add-on to enable support for new features and offer workarounds for Windows 10 and 11 features an apps. Since 2017 or so, features from this add-on have made their way to NVDA screen reader, including emoji panel support, virtual desktop announcements, search suggestion notification, modern app notification reporting via UI Automation, as well as support for apps including modern Calculator, Settings, Windows 11 Notepad, Microsoft Store, among others. Over the last ten years, awareness of need to design accessible technologies has risen, apps have come and gone, experienced significant global events including a pandemic and adoption of generative artificial intelligence, and NVDA itself has gone through countless changes.

With changes to technology accessibility landscape and life priorities, I decided to discontinue Windows App Essentials in 2025 with no replacement. The final add-on release will be made in late September, the add-on will be discontinued on October 14, 2025, and the add-on source code will be archived later in October. Windows App Essentials releases will stay on NV Access add-on store but no support will be provided after 2025. This also means the add-on will not be made compatible with 2026 NVDA releases.

Next steps:

1. Please upgrade to NVDA 2025.2 sooner than later. Majority of add-ons registered on the NV Access add-on store are compatible with NVDA 2025.x releases, and you can forcefully enable incompatible add-ons as some add-ons will work (there are add-ons that will not work in NVDA 2025.x).
2. After upgrading to NVDA 2025.2 or later, please remove (uninstall) the add-on from your NVDA installations (this includes portable NVDA as well). You can remove the add-on today or wait until October 2025 when the add-on will inform you that it is discontinued while installing it.
3. As part of Windows App Essentials 25.10 (final version) release announcement, I will provide the download link for that release for archival purposes. The add-on packages themselves (hosted on GitHub) will not be removed.

 

Addressing a few items:

• Is Windows App Essentials add-on compatible with 64-bit NVDA (see below): yes and no (more on that later, perhaps once more progress is made on 64-bit transition).
• Will you support newer Windows 11 releases: no – add-on end of life means end of support with no replacement. This also carries to Windows Insider Preview builds.
• Will you ask another person to maintain the add-on: no (I have made clear to the NVDA add-ons community that I will not be accepting maintainer requests for this add-on).
• I notice that Windows App Essentials does nothing when installed: correct (starting from version 25.09.1 (released last week and requires NVDA 2025.2), the add-on will literally do nothing upon installation except for presenting upcoming add-on end of life notice.
• Do you have plans to revive the add-on in the future: to be seen, but likely no.
• Will there be another add-on (or a revival of this add-on) to let us test potential NVDA features: probably not from me.
• Can I forcefully enable Windows App Essentials add-on when NVDA 2026.1 is released: if you do keep Windows App Essentials add-on around until that time, then no because it is discontinued long before NVDA 2026.1 stable version is released. In other words, I will not support such a scenario because folks should have parted ways with that add-on (uninstalled).
• Do you plan to/endorse/offer to support using Windows App Essentials add-on on a Windows 10 computer receiving extended security updates: no.
• Why release 25.10 in October 2025: four reasons: notify users about add-on end of life, remind users of Windows 10 end of life (unless enrolled into extended security updates, encourage Windows 11 upgrade if possible, and to give closure to a decade’s long journey (I used a similar process with Add-on Updater which is also end of life).

 

All of this comes down to the following NVDA community wide directive/notice:

I (Joseph Lee), the creator of Windows App Essentials add-on, hereby declare Windows App Essentials add-on end of life, effective October 14, 2025. Please uninstall the add-on. The “add-on discontinued” notice will be shown on NV Access add-on store in October as part of add-on description content. Between now and October 14^th, end of support countdown will be in effect (no new features, no changes, no bug fixes, no localization requests, add-on code is frozen).

 

On a more personal note: I’m slowly moving away from actively contributing to NVDA community and letting go of add-ons is one of the steps I am taking. With the discontinuation of Windows App Essentials in October 2025, there will no longer be any add-ons actively maintained by yours truly. There is a project I am working closely with another add-on author (StationPlaylist, to be exact), and once that project is complete (hopefully by end of 2025), I will be stepping away from active community contributions (I plan to watch from the sidelines, offering advice on meeting 64-bit NVDA in 2026; the 64-bit transition is being worked on by NV Access and contributors, including yours truly).

Thank you for using and supporting Windows App Essentials add-on.

Sincerely,

Joseph

 

Joseph S. Lee, M.A.

PhD student (communication), University of Colorado Boulder

Certified NVDA Expert, 2025

Member, NVDA Advisory Group