xps 11 volume-control button

The following discussion on the Microsoft boards discusses problems where Narrator starts by itself or is turned on by a volume control button.  It may prove to be of help. 

Disable narrator from Startup.

a) Type MSCONFIG into your Start menu and press enter to start the Microsoft Configuration Utility.

b) On the Startup tab, search for Narrator.exe.  If it exists, uncheck it to disable it from startup.

This is Microsoft's paper on Narrator and it mentions how holding down the Windows KEY and enter or the Windows key with the up volume button will turn on Narrator.

Press the Windows key and X together to bring up mobility and see if Narrator is mentioned. Uncheck it or disable it if it is.

TB

Thanks for your answer. What I am looking for is how to have the volume-control button work always as a volume control instead of starting Narrator. Also if possible can Narrator be permanently disabled without going into the Registry?

I am sorry I should have answered this on my first post. I believe that you can do that in the Ease of Access Center in control panel.

Open Control Panel

Open Ease of Access

Select Ease of Access Center

Under Explore all Settings select "use the computer without a display".

Uncheck the box for "Turn on Narrator"

Please let me know if this helps.

TB

When I boot up or restart my laptop the VOLUME-CONTROL BUTTON works as volume control without any effect on NARRATOR. So that's how it is now.  The "TURN ON NARRATOR'' box is naturally off.  I haven't found out yet the circumstances under which the volume-control button activates NARRATOR. It could be some conflict.

I took at look at accessibility options in control panel and other than in Narrator I didn't find anything that will start it.  One thing that you may want to look into is configuring Narrator so that even if it start it won't start reading text.

Open Narrator and uncheck make sure that "Echo User's Keystrokes", "Announce System Messages", and "Announce Scroll Notifications" are unchecked.

One other thing that occurs to me is you may want to check the properties for the sound card.  Just right click the speaker icon on the task bar and choose playback devices.  Select the speakers and click properties and click advanced. Uncheck both "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device, and Give Exclusive mode applications priority and click OK.

TB

Thanks again for your help.  My volume-control button has been working properly as volume control without any effect on Narrator. To make sure it will continue that way I tried to implement your suggestions but could not find "Echo User's Keystrokes", "Announce System Messages", and "Announce Scroll Notifications".  I did modify Properties of the sound card by unchecking the two items you suggested.  Hopefully, this will do it.

ZE