incorrect announcement of the Desktop as Explorer in some cases

[nvaccessAuto]

Reported by blindbhavya on 2014-08-02 16:22 I have commented about this on a ticket created recently regarding a different announcement of the Desktop as Program Manager, which according to Mr. James Teh was a purposeful label given by Microsoft. However, in some cases when we press NVDA + T (read the application title) NVDA says Explorer. Steps to reproduce Press Windows + D (only D, somehow with M this doesn't occurr). Press NVDA + T. Result (issue) NVDA says Explorer Actual Result (correct) NVDA should say Program Manager Issue I admit this a trivial or maybe minor issue, but do fix it if you get some time.

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 1 by briang1 on 2014-08-02 17:56 Funny you should bring this up, as another funny is that when you use windows D thedesktop just says pane folder view, which is not entirely helpful. I've noticed that whenever one does this and gets the pane, Explorer remains tha report for nvda/t until you visit an applicationaand then use windows m to come back whereupon its program manager. This is on XP.

MY thought was that it was some kind of windows bug left in for ages, and after all its merely irritating. I tend to use M instead of the more logical D for this very reason.

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 2 by briang1 on 2014-08-02 17:58 By the way its worth noting here that it is Explorer which generates the desktop. try to stop it in task manager or restart it and you will see.

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 3 by blindbhavya on 2014-08-02 18:05 Hi. Yes, I too noticed on Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit that with D NVDA says pane folder view list icon name and other info while with M NVDA just says folder view list icon and other info. Also, while I compose this comment and press M NVDA says Desktop list icon an other info. Very surprising. Please can someone clarify all this? On different situations NVDA reports different names for one simple Desktop???

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 4 by zahari_bgr on 2014-08-02 18:27 Hi, explorer.exe is not just a file manager, it is also the grafical shell of Windows in all versions of that operating system. The desktop is just one pain of that shell, like the start menu, the taskbar, the system tray etc. It is not exactly the Window manager, but may be it might be considered like that (may be that's why Microsoft used the title "Program manager"). I personally think that NVDA should not interfere here and the things should be left as they are. If NVDA interferes, different Windows versions and other factors should be taken in account, the new messages should be translated etc.

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 5 by jteh on 2014-08-03 22:20 There seem to be two views for the desktop. One is accessed when all applications are minimised (Windows+m) and the other is accessed in all other cases (Windows+d, alt+tab, etc.). The former reports Desktop and Program Manager, the latter reports pane and Explorer. I've no idea why these are exposed differently by Windows, but they are. Ideally, they'd all say Desktop.

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 6 by blindbhavya on 2014-08-04 11:58 Ideally, they'd all say Desktop. Do you mean NVDA should say them all as Desktop by the above statement? JAWS For Windows reads both Program Manager as Explorer as Desktop, so maybe if you think NVDA should say it as Desktop. P.S. Don't get me wrong, if Microsoft has assigned these labels then fine, and I am not saying that NVDA should be exactly like JAWS.

[bhavyashah]

@jcsteh (Mr. James Teh :P) Could you please clarify your stand as to whether you would be happy to consider this ticket and thus allow NVDA to somehow announce Desktop in all cases instead of varying, or do you believe that we should leave things as Microsoft has internally labelled them?

[jcsteh]

Ideally, we should report Desktop in all cases here, despite Windows silliness. That said, I also think this is super low priority, especially if fixing it turns out to be tedious.

[josephsl]

Hi,

2024 update: at least on Windows 11 2024 Update Preview, performing read title command (NVDA+T) after pressing Windows+D and Windows+M causes NVDA to say "program manager". I sometimes see mixed results in Windows 10. Any updates?

Thanks.