Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium 11 [Old Version]

The software is good, but I have to do a lot of correcting. The problem I guess is my computer does not have four gig ram memory, but I will probably either upgrade my computer or get me a new one. But as far as the software is fantastic. If you get the software remember you will get more out of it the more you train it. And make sure that your computer has the required system requirements. As far as using it on the Internet to check e-mail I will have to give it a thumbs down I have fooled with it and dont seem to get anywhere.I would recommend it to others that are one finger typist as I am. Hope this helps you in making your decision on buying or not buying the product. Have fun typing, good day. This

I debated whether to buy this or the newer version, but after reading other reviews I didnt feel like the newer version would be that important for me. It ran well on my old pc that ran Windows XP, though it would be alittle slow once in a while. Runs great on my newer computer and after training it to my voice it does great. (I use it to transcribe recordings that I have already made, so i repeat what i am listening to over the earphones).

I recently bought a new computer (64-bit, Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2300 CPU @ 2.80GHz, 2801 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s), 8 GB of RAM) with Win 7 Pro installed. Id been thinking about trying Dragon for a while and decided this would be the computer to try it with. Ordered from Amazon and it was delivered promptly. I installed it for the first time on 6/2/2011 and went through the registration process successfully. When I tried to run it I got an error: NaturallySpeaking isnt installed completely. Please try reinstalling. When I clicked details I got this additional information: One or more registry settings are corrupt and your registry permissions prevent Dragon NaturallySpeaking from correcting them. Please run Dragon NaturallySpeaking Setup and select the Repair option. I followed that suggestion and again got the notice at the end that installation was successful. But got the same error when I started the program. I went to the online support page on their site and filled out a support ticket with all pertinent information. On 6/3 I got a response giving detailed instructions for taking a screenshot of the error message and pasting it into Word and uploading it to them. I had already pasted the full text of the error message into my support message, and I had uploaded the dragon log file that also gave the full text of the error message, but I took a screenshot and uploaded it. Their next response explained how to set the computer to start up in diagnostic mode and told me to do that and install Dragon. Followed the instructions and got an error that Windows Installer Service couldnt be Accessed. I reported this back through their online support system. And support basically went quiet on me for five days. I continued to experiment with the installation, with no luck. While doing this I noticed an app that was loaded that their setup complained about...it couldnt stop it and wanted me to do so. It was Acresso Software Manager, which it turns out was installed by the Dragon InstallShield setup program. Several days later I started getting pop-up ads on my computer that I traced to this app. On 6/8, after submitting several more online updates and sending several emails to support asking if they were going to respond, I called the support line and spent over an hour online with a very nice support person in the Philippines. His English was good and I could understand him. He had me change some registry settings and reinstall. He also sent me an exe to run to fix an issue with GUIDs. After an hour of trying solutions that didnt help, he emailed me a link to download another build of DNS 11 that he said would fix the issue. I downloaded the 2.3 GB EXE and first ran it in repair mode as suggested. Same thing. Then did a full uninstall and reinstall...same thing. I reported all this to online support and uploaded the log again. I got the original canned response to set startup to run in Diagnostic mode, with the addition of explaining how to first set up an admin account. Did that, uninstalled and reinstalled. Same error when trying to run the program. Ive sent several more emails and online updates in the four days since that, but have had no response from support. While reading other reviews this morning I came across references to Windows Voice Recognition. Id forgotten it existed and hadnt tried it for years. Figured out how to activate it on Win 7 and did so...that took about five minutes and it worked fine. Decided to try it on my Asus netbook, to see how it works on a lower-powered computer (running Win 7) and it worked fine there too. Perhaps not as well as DNS 11 would work IF DNS 11 would work for me, but at least it worked with close to 100% recognition. I decided to uninstall and return the DNS 11 app to Amazon. This is the first thing I have returned to Amazon and wasnt sure just what to expect. It was absolutely simple and a model for all other companies. Clicked a button, selected a reason, clicked to print the UPS label, and that was it. I couldnt believe they even paid the return postage. Class act. Nuance outsources their support to a company with the rather inaccurate name RightNow. I think RightNow needs to put a little more effort into setting up their online support system...there is really no excuse for going four or five days without responding to an update on an ongoing problem.

I got this program for my wife to help with the amount of writing that she does. My beef with this is the training that you have to do so that the program recognizes your voice. It turns out that my wife has never fully follwed through on using it. It does work, and it does help, but you have to work at it.

I approached the installation with foreboding because I had read other reviews which were either very positive or very negative. I followed the instructions for installation very carefully, and I failed miserably five times. I was about to send it back to Amazon, but I decided to try once more, and to ignore one of the instructions given by the manufacturer. Voila! The installation worked very smoothly; see more details below. After installing the program it is truly miraculous! On my computer the installation failed on either the third or fourth step. The step recommends that you either do or do not do something while Visual C++ 9 or 10 loads onto your hard drive. When I followed the recommendation the process failed. Finally, when I did the opposite thing installation rapidly proceeded and completed. It is possible that my computer represented a special situation, because I have various versions of Visual C++, Express edition installed on my computer. I have a few other comments to make. If you want really excellent dictation you will need to put in a lot of effort to learn the system. Remember that if you give a command to put DNS into a specific mode and then forget that you have done that, it will create a big mess until you reverse the mode. I am using the program to keep informal notes and to dictate informal e-mails, and it is terrific for that sort of thing. I am hoping that I dont need technical support from Nuance because other reviewers have made very unflattering comments about that support.

Twelve is a decent product; Ive used in on other machines - but it seemed to be both slower, and lack the built-in vocabulary (particularly medical; Im old, and a lot of my convos involve medical terms). THe learning curve was not real bad; after the first training, I was hitting over 80 percent- and it went higher as I trained it more. I have almost no suggestions to change on this; even if it was the current version.. and since my nerve problems have made it so difficult for me to type, its now doing most of my work. Get it, Train it. Use it. Smile more. What better recommendation can I give?

I bought this as a Christmas gift for someone who has been talking for years about writing a book but never took action. I read all of the reviews carefully before purchasing Dragon because the recipient is not particularly proficient with computers. After a month, he is still having great difficulty with it. I am sure that if he were take the time to use the tutorial and/or peruse the online manual at least some of his troubles would be resolved. Unfortunately, he is one of those I dont need no stinkin instructions type of guys. I guess I was overly optimistic about his ability to make use of Dragon. Just from my sessions trying to assist him, I notice that Dragon does take time learning, both on the part of the person and the software itself. Conclusion: be careful who you buy this for as it is nowhere near as easy to use as it first appears.

11.5 is the best version there is. v.12 is a mess and I never trust brand new software (v.13). Im an AT practitioner and train approximately 25 clients a year on Dragon. The only drawback is Win 8 and 10. It does not work well on 8 and I dont think is compatible with 10 at all. It is hard to find this version so I usually order more than one at once.

I installed this today and after a few hours, tons of searching for a solution online, and plenty of messing with my computer settings, I am throwing the towel in. I continually get an error message that the Sound Level is Too Low and I cannot even get past the profile setup wizard due to this error. The headphones included with the software are either junk, or the software itself has an error with Windows 7. A user forum I was reading mentioned that if you call Nuance with this problem they will spend plenty of time making sure you checked all the obvious solutions, then they apologize and tell you they have a software glitch they are working on. I havent subjected myself to this process, and I dont plan on it, either. No product should require this much work just to get it to function adequately. Well, a glitch working with Windows 7 is a big deal. I am computer savvy, I can build a PC from parts, I can install software, I can change system settings in Control Panel, and I can troubleshoot simple problems better than most computer users. I checked every single listed solution I was able to try, and I simply cannot get this software to run properly. If this is a known bug, as it seems to be, then this product should not be sold as compliant with Windows 7. I am returning this, there is no way I plan on spending even more time and effort getting this to work. I checked the microphone function with the Windows Sound Recorder, and while it is a bit low, it records just fine. So, either the issue is the included headset (hopefully Nuance is not hair-brained enough to send out a faulty headset that will make their software look like garbage) -or- the problem is that their software is buggy and doesnt run properly on my new, clean, non-buggy computer.

As others have done, I decided to try and use the product to write a review. I have a southern accent and so far it has not posed much of a problem. Accuracy has been pretty good ever since reading the first training article. I upgraded the headset to an Andrea USB model, and Ive read several more of the training excerpts to it. Subjectively accuracy seems improved after these changes. Far faster than typing for me. Really liking it so far. Only have to correct it every now and again (I would guess 95 to 98% accuracy right out-of-the-box and hopefully will improve with training). A couple of things Ive noticed: 1. The instructions dont make it very clear as to whether reading additional articles increases accuracy or if the program simply stores the last article that you read to it. Im guessing that each article you read increases accuracy. This would make sense. 2. I noticed when trying the product on an Internet discussion board, that my accuracy seemed to fall off considerably. I have no explanation for this. It seems to work just fine while doing this Amazon review as well as in various Word documents. At this point I give it four stars, but with time and training if accuracy continues to improve, I could easily up that to five stars.