Steps to reproduce:

1. Configure NVDA remote to automatically connect to a server which does not exist on purpose, such as doesnotexist.com
2. Restart NVDA.
3. Press NVDA+Alt+R to establish a new remote access connection.

Actual behavior:

1. NVDA does not play any automatic connection sounds, which is expected, since the server does not exist.
2. NVDA does not inform the user that the automatic connection failed in any way.
3. If you press NVDA+Alt+R to attempt establishing a new remote access connection, everything seems to work correctly and the connection dialog opens. However, if you connect to a real remote access server and then attempt to control another computer, when you press NVDA+Alt+Tab, you will hear "not connected.", even though you can hear remote speech at this point. The same thing will happen if you attempt to mute remote.
   Similarly, pressing NVDA+Alt+R just opens the connection dialog again, instead of disconnecting the existing session.
4. If we don't follow step 3 and never connect to any other remote servers, but instead restart NVDA, we hear the remote access disconnection sound, even though we were strictly speaking not connected to anything.

Expected behavior:

NVDA should notify the user that the automatic connection failed and gracefully disconnect it, allowing you to connect to another server if you want

Additional context

Originally, I encountered this issue when connecting to a real, existing remote server, but the server was temporarily down, so this behaviour confused me quite a lot as I thought that the automatic connection is generally broken. Thus, connecting to a fake server is just an easy way to quickly reproduce it, but in real user contexts the bug can happen out of nowhere if their chosen server simply does not work at the moment.

NVDA logs, crash dumps and other attachments:

NVDA remote auto connect bug.txt

System configuration

NVDA installed/portable/running from source:

Tried both installed and portable

NVDA version:

alpha-37340,23259799 (2025.3.0.37340)

Windows version:

Windows 11 24H2 (AMD64) build 26100.4652

Name and version of other software in use when reproducing the issue:

None

Other information about your system:

Other questions

Does the issue still occur after restarting your computer?

Yes

Have you tried any other versions of NVDA? If so, please report their behaviors.

No

If NVDA add-ons are disabled, is your problem still occurring?

Yes

Does the issue still occur after you run the COM Registration Fixing Tool in NVDA's tools menu?

Yes