NV Access is pleased to announce that version 2024.3 of NVDA, the free screen reader for Microsoft Windows, is now available for download. We encourage all users to upgrade to this version.
Highlights
The Add-on Store will now notify you if any add-on updates are available on NVDA startup.
There are now options to apply Unicode normalization to speech and braille output. This can be useful when reading characters that are unknown to a particular speech synthesizer or braille table and which have a compatible alternative, like the bold and italic characters commonly used on social media. It also allows reading of equations in the Microsoft Word equation editor.
Help Tech Activator Pro braille displays are now supported.
Unassigned commands have been added to scroll the mouse wheel vertically and horizontally.
There are several bug fixes, particularly for the Windows 11 Emoji Panel and Clipboard history. For web browsers, there are fixes for reporting error messages, figures, captions, table labels and checkbox/radio button menu items.
LibLouis has been updated, adding new Braille tables for Cyrillic Serbian, Yiddish, several ancient languages, Turkish, and the International Phonetic Alphabet. eSpeak has been updated, adding support for the Karakalpak language. Unicode CLDR has also been updated.
Important Note:
Please note, after updating any software, it is a good idea to restart the computer. Restart by going to the Shutdown dialog, selecting “restart” and pressing ENTER. Updating software can change files which are in use. This can lead to instability and strange behaviour which is resolved by rebooting. This is the first thing to try if you do notice anything odd after updating.
You may have noticed that when installing the 2024.3 update (or one of the earlier beta versions) that a warning from Microsoft Defender SmartScreen pops up. This is the result of the new code signing certificate (which are rotated every few years) being used, and nothing to worry about. The new certificate will continue to give our users peace of mind in the authenticity of NVDA builds. If you do get a warning please choose “Run anyway” and you should not be bothered again in future. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to SignPath for their generous support in providing code signing services to many open source projects, including NVDA. Their contribution helps us maintain the security and integrity of our releases.
Links
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We also have a range of training material in the NV Access Shop to help you increase your skills with NVDA. Start with the popular Basic Training for NVDA in electronic text, audio and braille. Save with the NVDA Productivity Bundle. This includes Basic Training, all our Microsoft Office training, and telephone support.
- Download NVDA 2024.3
- SHA256 sum: 24b836ce0439217f6e5555dda54e5fcc71631be6f2f9ddad4217b1e8ab12838b
- What’s new in NVDA 2024.3
Close-up photograph of NVDA logo in notification area.