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Window-Eyes 7.2 Refresh

by Aaron Smith on Friday, August 13 2010

We're trying something a little different. Before I go on, understand that the latest version of Window-Eyes is still 7.2. Thing is, we have "refreshed" the master copies (including demo and upgrades) to contain a few fixes that were not included in the original 7.2 version released back on May 5th. So what changed? Just a few fixes that we felt were too important to wait until the next release. At the same time, not enough changed to warrant a new version number. Whenever Window-Eyes changes version numbers, a complex array of things have to take place, from database updates to localization; it's far more work than a handful of bug fixes requires. It was, therefore, easier for us to update a few bits here and there, continue to call it 7.2 (because it is), and make the new build freely available for all 7.2 users. By now you've already asked, "but do I need this refresh?" To answer that, let me list the few things that changed:

  • There were cases where Window-Eyes would not come up automatically under Vista and above even though the startup options were set correctly. We knew this was happening to a handful of people, but were never able to duplicate it, so it remained unsolved. Recently, someone sent us a machine that demonstrated the problem, and we had it fixed within a day.
  • Mozilla changed the way Thunderbird 3.1 indicated links between editing a message and reviewing a message, and that change caused Window-Eyes to get very confused and would, as a side effect, pop out of Browse Mode when a link got focused. All is better now.
  • We fixed a handful of lockups, some related to Office, some related to Braille scripting (thanks to Handy Tech for pointing them out), and one related to an application called Attendant (thanks to Handy Tech for that one too). That last one was actually the Attendant's fault, but we worked around it.
If you're experiencing issues that you feel this refresh might resolve, then maybe it's for you. If you're not having problems, you don't need to bother. Access to the refreshed 7.2 is easy: just re-download your 7.2 upgrade (www.gwmicro.com/upgrade), re-install it on top of the 7.2 you have, reboot, and you'll be using the updated 7.2. If you want to know whether or not you have the updated version, just open up the readme file (Help -> Readme). The readme has the release date shown as "Released: 5/5/2010" with an additional line of "Supplemental: 8/11/2010." If you have questions, comments, or concerns, please contact us at support@gwmicro.com. Edit: I forgot to mention that this version also solves a problem where Payment Plan users were getting timed out after a matter of days (sometimes after a single reboot). Now they're back to getting a full 30 days per activation.

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