Revert pr #19290 to tempoararily add back broken sapi4 while we move it to the 32 bit runtime

[michaelDCurran]

Link to issue number:

Reverts #19290

Summary of the issue:

with the move to 64 bit, sapi4 became unusable as it only functions in a 32 bit process. PR #19290 was merged which removes sapi4. However, pr #19432 is adding the infrastructure to run sapi4 within a 32 bit runtime. Thus the original sapi4 should be tempoararily added back so that pr #19432 can move it into its 32 bit location.

Description of user facing changes:

None.

Description of developer facing changes:

Description of development approach:

This is a clean revert of pr #19290 (with only a conflict in changes.md which was addressed).

Testing strategy:

None - clean revert.

Known issues with pull request:

None known.

Code Review Checklist:

• Documentation:
  • Change log entry
  • User Documentation
  • Developer / Technical Documentation
  • Context sensitive help for GUI changes
• Testing:
  • Unit tests
  • System (end to end) tests
  • Manual testing
• UX of all users considered:
  • Speech
  • Braille
  • Low Vision
  • Different web browsers
  • Localization in other languages / culture than English
• API is compatible with existing add-ons.
• Security precautions taken.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR is a clean revert of PR #19290, which previously removed SAPI 4 support from NVDA. The revert is temporary—SAPI 4 is being restored so that PR #19432 can move it to a 32-bit runtime environment. Since SAPI 4 only functions in 32-bit processes and NVDA has moved to 64-bit, this intermediate step is necessary.

Changes:

• Reverts the removal of SAPI 4 synthesizer driver code
• Re-adds SAPI 4 documentation to user guide and design docs
• Restores WASAPI configuration option for SAPI 4
• Resolves conflicts in changes.md (though with an error—see below)

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 7 out of 7 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
user_docs/en/userGuide.md	Restored SAPI 4 synthesizer documentation and WASAPI configuration option description
user_docs/en/changes.md	Removed changelog entries about SAPI 4 removal (conflict resolution has errors)
source/synthDrivers/sapi4.py	Restored SAPI 4 synthesizer driver implementation (~1260 lines)
source/synthDrivers/_sapi4.py	Restored SAPI 4 COM interface definitions (~332 lines)
source/gui/settingsDialogs.py	Re-added WASAPI for SAPI 4 GUI controls in Advanced settings
source/config/configSpec.py	Restored useWASAPIForSAPI4 configuration option
projectDocs/design/synthesizers.md	Added new documentation for testing SAPI 4

---

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.