This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off find and download new extensions on Narrator startup for your account in Windows 11.
Narrator is a screen reader included with Windows 11 that describes what's on your screen. Narrator lets you use your PC without a mouse to complete common tasks if you’re blind or have low vision. It reads and interacts with things on the screen, like text and buttons. Use Narrator to read and write email, browse the internet, and work with documents.
Narrator now supports the use of extensions to improve the productivity and efficiency of Narrator with applications. Outlook and Excel are the current extensions that are supported.
You can use the Enable Narrator extensions option to enable or disable all extensions. Extensions are turned on by default. Turning Narrator extensions off will force all extensions to not execute when Narrator is started and when applications are started. In addition, if extensions are turned off Narrator will not check for extensions when Narrator starts up.
You can use the Find and download new extensions on Narrator startup checkbox to enable or disable the ability for Narrator to download extensions when Narrator starts. This feature is enabled by default. Narrator extensions must also be enabled for this feature to work as documented.
You can find out the last time Narrator attempt to download extensions from the Microsoft store. There will be a Last Updated label in Narrator settings that shows the date and time of the last successful download from the store of extensions.
Reference:
Chapter 7: Customizing Narrator | Microsoft Support
Learn how to customize Narrator, choose a different voice for Narrator, and learn about how to add a third-party text-to-speech (TTS) voice to Narrator.
support.microsoft.com
Contents
- Option One: Turn On or Off Find and Download New Extensions on Narrator Startup in Settings
- Option Two: Turn On or Off Find and Download New Extensions on Narrator Startup using REG file
1 Open Settings (Win+I).
2 Click/tap on Accessibility on the left side, and click/tap on Narrator on the right side. (see screenshot below)
Open Narrator settings (Win+Ctrl+N)
3 Under Experimental features, click/tap on Enable Narrator extensions to expand it open. (see screenshot below step 4)
4 Check (on - default) or uncheck (off) Find and download new extensions on Narrator startup for what you want. (see screenshot below)
5 You can now close Settings if you like.
1 Do step 2 (on) or step 3 (off) below for what you would like to do.
2 Turn On "Find and download new extensions on Narrator startup"
This is the default setting.
This will also turn on the required Enable Narrator extensions.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_ON_Find_and_download_new_extenstions_on_Narrator_startup_for_current_user.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Narrator\NoRoam]
"CheckForScriptsEnabled"=dword:00000001
"ScriptingEnabled"=dword:000000013 Turn Off "Find and download new extensions on Narrator startup"
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_OFF_Find_and_download_new_extenstions_on_Narrator_startup_for_current_user.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Narrator\NoRoam]
"CheckForScriptsEnabled"=dword:000000004 Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5 If you have Smart App Control turned on, you will need to unblock the downloaded REG file.
6 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.
7 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
8 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
Last edited:
