does this one break add ons?

@evilcookies98 No - only the first release of each year (2023.1, 2024.1, 2025.1 etc) are add-on compatibility breaking. If you do encounter any issues, please do let us know, as we're not expecting any breakages!

is it OK if I ask why that keeps happening? I understand why it happened when you change the python version, but I don’t understand why it has to happen again every single year. I’m not criticizing. I’m confused.

@evilcookies98 We're actually working on some comms to come out to help explain that & we're working on a longer term fix as well. Basically, we hold over fixes or features which MIGHT break add-ons & put them all in the .1 release. So we only break anything once a year, and can keep all the add-on developers across that. If devs check their add-ons and everything still works - great! They can just tweak a few things and good to go. Basically it ensures things don't randomly break other times.

OK. Like I said, I wasn’t being critical. I was just being confused.

@evilcookies98 That's fair enough. Prior to the Python 2 - 3 update (2019.3), any update could break add-ons without any notification or set system in place. Given that add-ons can do anything you can do with Python, that could include entirely freezing your system, causing you to lose work. So the current system should give you a more stable experience, and we are aware it is not perfect and are looking at how to make it smoother for everyone in the future.

I like the override you’ve given us. A lot of times the add-ons work fine, but the system just thinks they don’t.

@evilcookies98 Yes - and that's why. It is good to carefully check or see what others in the ocmmunity think - just because NVDA starts with an add-on overriding the compatibility check doesn't guarantee that it will work, but it can help you keep using an add-on which wasn't affected by a particular year's changes while you wait for the developer to update it.