All Ways to Enable Narrator in Windows 10

Narrator is a screen-reading app built into Windows 10. Narrator lets users with vision issues to use PC and complete common tasks. Today, we review all possible ways to enable or disable Narrator in recent Windows 10 versions.

Microsoft describes the Narrator feature as follows:

Narrator lets you use your PC without a display or mouse to complete common tasks if you’re blind or have low vision. It reads and interacts with things on the screen, like text and buttons. Use Narrator to read and write email, browse the Internet, and work with documents.

Specific commands let you navigate Windows, the web, and apps, as well as get info about the area of the PC you're in. Navigation is available using headings, links, landmarks, and more. You can read text (including punctuation) by page, paragraph, line, word, and character as well as determine characteristics like font and text color. Efficiently review tables with row and column navigation.

Narrator also has a navigation and reading mode called Scan Mode. Use it to get around Windows 10 using just the up and down arrows on your keyboard. You can also use a braille display to navigate your PC and read text.

There are a number of methods you can use to turn on or off Narrator in modern Windows 10 versions, including Settings, shortcut keys, and more.

To enable Narrator in Windows 10,

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to Ease of Access -> Narrator. 
3. On the right, turn on the toggle option Narrator to enable it.

Enable Narrator using a keyboard shortcut

1. Press the Win + Ctrl + Enter keys together on your keyboard to enable or disable Narrator for your user account in Windows 10
2. Use the Caps lock + Esc keys to disable Narrator.

Tip: You can disable the Win + Ctrl + Enter shortcut. See Disable Narrator Keyboard Shortcut in Windows 10.

Also, you can use the Win + Ctrl + N hotkey to open the Narrator Settings page directly.

Enable Narrator in Control Panel

As of this writing, the classic Control Panel is still available in Windows 10. It comes with a number of options and tools which are not available in Settings. It has a familiar user interface which many users prefer over the Settings app. You can use Administrative tools, manage user accounts on the computer in a flexible way, maintain data backups, change the functionality of hardware and many other things. You can pin Control Panel applets to the taskbar to access frequently used settings faster.

To enable Narrator in the classic Control Panel,

1. Open the classic Control Panel app.
2. Go to Control Panel\Ease of Access\Ease of Access Center.
3. Click on the Start Narrator button.
4. Alternatively, click on the link Use the computer without a display.
5. On the next page, enable the option Turn on Narrator.

Finally, you can enable or disable Narrator right from the login screen of Windows 10. This useful option is available starting in Windows 10 build 17704.

Enable Narrator on the Sign-in screen

1. Click on the Ease-of-Access button.
2. In the flyout, use the toggle option to enable the Narrator feature.

That's it.

Support us

Winaero greatly relies on your support. You can help the site keep bringing you interesting and useful content and software by using these options: