[Blindtlk] Windows 8 Aggravations

[Arielle Silverman]

Hi all,

I just got a new laptop last weekend with Windows 8.1 and the latest
version of JAWS 15. I'm running into several challenges and am not
sure if these are JAWS limitations or if I just haven't learned how to
use Windows 8.

Most frustrating is that JAWS has been stalling and randomly going
silent at least once a day. It happens in the middle of downloads,
when I try to open the videos app, and at other random times. Luckily
I can get Narrator to work during those times (which is how I know
it's a JAWS stall and not a system freeze) but Narrator isn't a great
substitute for JAWS. Sometimes JAWS comes on when I alt-tab out of the
offending window, sometimes when I close the offending window, and
other times not at all until I restart. My laptop has 4 GB of RAM and
I'm not sure why this is happening so often.

Second, I use Gmail Webmail interface for all my email and I can't
figure out how to add attachments to my emails. The Browse button
works fine, but I can't find a list of file directories. There is
something called a grid view, and something else with a list of my
libraries like My Documents and Music, but pressing Enter doesn't open
the list and down-arrowing just leads me to the grid view instead of
down the list. This is very irritating especially since sending files
to people is a really important part of my everyday life. Is there a
fix for this problem? I've also noticed that Internet Explorer doesn't
let me access the menus or use Control-O to open the address bar
anymore. Will my ability to send attachments return if I switch to
Firefox or is this a more general problem with the way files are
organized in Windows 8?

Finally, a less serious concern, but Microsoft Excel 2013 doesn't tell
me what cell I'm in automatically as I move from row to row or column
to column. Is there a JAWS command to get that info?

Will Classic Shell help me at all?

Thanks for any advice and sorry there are so many questions!
Arielle