Comment 1 by jteh on 2012-11-05 00:14
I do remember that Narrator does this, but I don't quite follow what selected candidate actually means. Windows 8 splits search into several categories, so which category is it pulling the result from? The results list isn't focused when you start searching (unlike Windows 7), so how is there a selection? I assume it is indicated visually somehow.

Comment 2 by pitermach (in reply to comment 1) on 2012-12-29 00:04
Replying to jteh:

I do remember that Narrator does this, but I don't quite follow what selected candidate actually means. Windows 8 splits search into several categories, so which category is it pulling the result from? The results list isn't focused when you start searching (unlike Windows 7), so how is there a selection? I assume it is indicated visually somehow.

When you start typing, Narrator will always indicate the top item that's found (EG the one which will be opened if you press enter without down-arrowing into other results further down the list.) If there are multiple items that are found, it might say, for instance, Mail and other results found to indicate this. You also get a message for no results. Other screen readers do something similar.
To make things even more confusing, it seems that you can only focus an actual search result if there is more than 1. If there are no results pressing down arrow will take you to the list of possible items that can be searched (apps, files, etc.) This is what the results are pooled from when you type, if you initiate the search from the start screen you serch apps, but if you start it from windows+F or windows+Q you search files and settings respectively. Back to the list, if there is only one item found immediately pressing enter in the search box will open it. But if you try to down arrow into that list, and then up-arrow back up into the search box you won't be able to press enter to open the result anymore. This is really confusing since at that point you don't know if there was something found or not since the behavior is the same. To make things worse, I tried exploring with object navigation when this happened and wasn't able to find anything to indicate that something was found (at least not with simple review).

Comment 3 by aleskis on 2013-01-14 19:34
As pitermach explained, during the writting in the modern Ui, narrator announces successive occurences. It's a confortable way to heard the first result (it's heavily missed.)

Comment 4 by pitermach on 2013-01-14 21:18
I also just tested system access with this. Seems they did some work with Windows 8, as it now reads metro, and the search box support is also improved.
When you're searching it will say "first item," followed by the name, and the position count "EG 1 of 12". I guess NVDA could do this as well, maybe without the first item part, and I think that'd work quite well. System access also seems to indicate matches in other categories. What I mean is if you search for an app, but then tab to the searchable items list and arrow, system access will say the category, followed by the number of matches. I think this should also be implemented, and I think there's already a ticket about that which explains how to obtain the info.

I use Classic Shell, a software that has modified my Start menu, thus making me unable to personally test the current standing of the reported issue. Could someone else having access to a non-modified Windows 8.1 Start menu please test and revert with results?

We didn't get any updates on this issue since many years, and support for Windows 8 ended completely in 2016 while Windows 8.1 ended completely in 2023. I am closing this issue as abandoned since I don't expect any futher updates regarding this windows version.