NVDA quits working with new tabs in IE and Firefox after reloading plugins

[nvaccessAuto]

Reported by katalina on 2012-12-23 00:00
After reloading plugins with CTRL+NVDA+F3, NVDA does not enter browse mode in new tabs or after clicking links from existing pages with IE and Firefox. Already opened tabs seem to be uneffected until a link is selected.
You can only navigate the page as if you are in focus mode, regardless of toggling the state with NVDA+Space.
restarting IE, Firefox, or NVDA fixes the issue.

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Steps to reproduce:

Open IE or Firefox.
Go to some web page.
Reload plugins with CTRL+NVDA+F3
Open a new tab, and go to another webpage, or select a link from an open page.
Attempt to navigate.

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Expected results:

Ability to navigate new page in browse mode.

Actual results:

Unable to enter browse mode.

Blocking #3646

[nvaccessAuto]

Attachment nvda.log added by katalina on 2012-12-23 00:01
Description:
NVDA Log file. Windows error is shown in log when a new tab is opened after reloading plugins.

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 1 by jteh on 2012-12-26 08:11
The reload plugins command has always had the potential to cause memory leaks and other breakage.

This particular issue occurs because destroying an app module causes NVDA to lose its connection to nvdaHelperRemote in the remote process. This connection is created by nvdaHelperRemote, not NVDA itself, so I don't think there's a way to re-establish this.

Mick, is there any easy way to work around this? Issues like this make me wonder whether we should drop the reload plugins command altogether.