If you’re on a Windows PC, you can start Narrator with control + windows + enter. Narrator only supports the Windows UIA accessibility API, but since Windows version 1903, MSAA and IA2 are automatically mapped to UIA by the OS itself, so Narrator should have broad compatibility. However, it doesn't seem to capture everything, and often includes metadata that's not announced, so proceed with caution. Developer mode will put a black curtain in front of the currently focused application and display the current speech output in white text. It doesn't have a speech viewer, but there is an interesting feature called developer mode, which you can activate with caps lock + control + F12. Narrator highlights its virtual cursor with a blue rectangle by default. Narrator does not have any support for plugins or scripting. Refreshable braille displays and keyboard are supported over USB. It can run on secure Windows screens, like logon, and has a rich set of customizable preferences. The speech synthesizer supports over 50 languages as well as 3rd party synths. NVDA has robust support for browsing the web using Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, the Microsoft Office suite, and built-in Windows apps. Narrator supports custom text-to-speech voices, dozens of languages, and refreshable braille displays. For the many Windows devices with touch screens, Narrator also has a touch mode that works similarly to iOS VoiceOver. In response to recent user feedback, Microsoft added a virtual cursor, or scan mode, so interacting with Narrator will be very familiar to anyone coming from NVDA or JAWS. Support for the Microsoft Office suite and Windows apps goes without saying.

Narrator was originally designed to work best with Microsoft Edge, but since Edge ditched its own rendering engine for Chromium in 2019, Narrator works equally well with Edge and Chrome. Microsoft develops for Narrator first, so it enjoys great support in Windows and other Microsoft apps. There's no need to install another screen reader if you need to do a quick task on a computer that's not your primary device. This is likely in part because Narrator is built into Windows.

But that doesn't mean nobody uses it - Narrator has seen a 150% increase as a commonly used screen reader since 2017, making up over 40% of usage. Only 1% of users reported that Narrator was their primary screen reader in WebAIM’s 2021 screen reader survey.

Nvda screen reader review