Related issues, PRs or discussions

Follow up to #17728 and #10516

What is the current state of the codebase?

After #17728 is merged, NVDA is now being built with GitHub actions in parallel to AppVeyor.
It is missing key parts of AppVeyor, many required to create a release build of NVDA:

• Features:
  • feature_signing: code signing Enable code signing on GH Actions #18034
  • feature_buildSymbols: creating build syms for NVDA Add symbols generation to GH Actions #18033
  • feature_uploadSymbolsToMozilla: uploading symbols to mozilla
    • Add symbols generation to GH Actions #18033
    • Tested
  • feature_crowdinSync: uploading translations to Crowdin
    • Add crowdin upload to GH actions #18035
    • Tested
• Deploying the release via the NV Access server hook: Deploy with GitHub actions #18244
• Uploading various artifacts
• Consider downloading and committing translations. Do this for releases, at the start of the build.
  • Fetch translations from crowdin #18453
• Moving AppVeyor documentation over to the GitHub actions docs
  • Add documentation for CI/CD set up #18330

Why are changes required?

We want parity between GitHub actions and AppVeyor before migrating over permanently

What technical changes are required?

• Going over the AppVeyor build scripts and ensuring feature parity in GitHub actions (see disabled features)
• Comparing the artifacts of PR builds, alpha/beta/rc branch builds and tagged release builds
• Testing a tagged release of NVDA on a fork
• Update branch protection rules to use the new actions
  • add Actions Check if all tests pass as a single job #18554
  • remove appveyor
• Ensuring START_BUILD_NUMBER is greater than the last AppVeyor build
• Disabling AppVeyor / Hard switch to GH Actions
  • switch for snapshots and PRs Disable AppVeyor for PRs/snapshots #18555
  • switch for tagged releases
• Removing AppVeyor scripts
  • Remove AppVeyor entirely #18556
  • Server-side
• Turning off AppVeyor integration through the web UX, removing it from access to our project
  • delete webhook: https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/settings/hooks/7195058
  • delete project: https://ci.appveyor.com/project/NVAccess/nvda/settings/delete
• Improve system tests
  • Try re-enabling system tests which were failing on AppVeyor: tagged excluded_from_build
  • Split up system tests for speed #18211
  • Split up chrome tests into logical groups #18502
  • Intermittent test failures #13401
  • Increase quit from keyboard timeout #18580
  • Re-enable start from desktop shortcut test #18582
• Create script to clean up cached PR builds: Create script to clear older caches #18751

Are the proposed technical changes API breaking?

No

Are there potential risks or issues with the proposed implementation?

No