Marvin,

I don't know anything about programming, so I can't help you solve your 
problem of not hearing the Windows start and end sounds in 8.1, but I 
notice something interesting.

I have two computers, an Acer laptop and a Lenovo desktop. The laptop 
plays the start and end music, but the desktop doesn't. With Jaws 15, 
the desktop usually announces, "Login window," or something like that 
when the computer finishes booting, but Jaws sometimes says nothing, so 
if I don't hear the announcement, I've learned to check after the right 
amount of time has elapsed. When I've used NVDA as my primary computer, 
I think I remember that it doesn't announce the login window, but it's 
been a while, so I'm not sure.

I seem to remember checking the sounds on both computers and noticing 
that both show that the start and end sounds are checked/enabled.

What problems are you having with the task bar? You can tab to it from 
the desktop, then arrow left and right. to move through the running 
programs. You can also tab to the Notification chevron, press enter, 
then arrow left to move through the items that are pinned to it, but I 
think this was also available in Windows 7.

Ciao


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