Nuance Dragon Dragon NaturallySpeaking Home 13 (Old Version)

I am sitting at my wifes computer writing this review because the Dragon program messed up mine. I installed the Dragon Naturally Speaking Home on my computer, a Cybertron running Windows 10 with an i7 processor. The program came with a headset, so I used that on my computer. After installing it, the program has a set up. First you go through a long processes of registering the program, then it takes you to a set up sequence. During this set up it installs a menu that has a large button on it. Hovering over that button will tell you if the microphone is on or off. It started in the off position, and it never changed. It is impossible to turn the button on. As I was going through the set up, it wanted me to download Bonjour, an Apple program free on the internet. I tried to do that but ran into issues. I finally downloaded the program, but when I tried to continue to load Dragon it failed to recognize the microphone. Over and over it kept telling me to turn on the microphone before it could continue. Over a dozen times I went to the dashboard button and clicked it, but it never came on. I went to the help sites, both on Nuance and on the web, and never resolved the issue. I plugged and unplugged the line numerous times on the headphone/microphone set that came with the program without any progress. I also switched locations from the back of the tower, to the front of the tower, then to the monitor and none of them changed the outcome. The microphone stayed off. So I switched microphones. I put a KLIM USB microphone on the machine, and it still failed to work. The program set up will not recognize any microphone I have tried. And I plugged and unplugged the KLIM several times and used several USB ports. In addition, Bonjour turned off the speakers on my computer. When searching the system error messages I was told the download turned off my speakers, but it never told me how to turn the speakers back on. More problems. Because of this, I manually loaded the microphone specs into the program. It accepted them and said OK, but the microphone never turned on. I erased Bonjour and reloaded everything, to no avail. The microphone will not work. Its simple enough, no microphone no speech program. So, I am now faced with a total disaster. My computers speakers are disabled, and none of the microphones will work. The Bonjour seems to have turned off the ability of my computer to recognize any microphone for any purpose. Of course, it could have been the Dragon program that messed them up. Its hard to say. Even when I leave Dragon, none of the microphones work, but they did before - so why did they quit now? Without some kind of outside help this isnt going to resolve itself. I may be stuck with taking my computer into a repair shop and paying for some type of reset. All because I bought this program. Even if Amazon gives me my money back, which they might not, Ill have to pay extra to fix the computer problems caused by the program. Believe me when I tell you this is a dangerous program to install on Windows 10. In my opinion, this program has the potential to devastate your computer. This is NOT a benign install. Ive researched other dictation programs, but - at least on Amazon - none are available. AD2

This was a gift for my dad. He had one I bought for him and then had to get a new PC the Dragon did not copy over. So I bought him a new one for his birthday. NOT USER FRIENDLY as far as the set up. He has had to have some come over several times to try to get it installed and is very frustrated. I will not be replacing this again for him I will be looking into a different product and make sure its easily installed

I havent started using it intensively but the voice recognition training went pretty fast. One important thing is that the description of whats included in the package dd not list headphones and strongly implied that a separate headset needed to be purchased. So I bought the Koss CS 100 headset along with the software. Imagine my shock when i received the software and found the included headphone. Why this wasnt made clear in the description I dont know. But, unless you dont care about throwing away money this is important.

This is my first experience with speech to text, other than with a smart phone. At first I was very annoyed that the program was not load and play with Windows 10. I had Office 2000 installed (which worked fine) and DNS refused to load with outdated Word. I uninstalled O-2000 because Ill be using Open Office anyway. THEN, DNS says, well...not yet. You need to download an additional Microsoft file. Went to the MS page for that and saw that that file was old and obsolete...but downloaded it anyway. Reboot. Whataya know...DNS seemed satisfied and finally loaded. I believe DNS 13 is an out of date program, but the price is right. Seems to work with pretty much all programs on my machine and is quite accurate. Not perfect of course, but neither is my typing, by a long shot. I can see that it will take a few hours of using DNS to become really familiar with the commands but the time will be well spent.

Spent over three hours trying to get it to work. Found a telephone number thru Google and made two calls to tech service. This was very disappointing. I told them the earphones and mic were defective They ran me through all the start up aND STILL THE MIC WOULD NOT WORK. They then told me my sound card was defective. I purchased a new mic and earphones and the first time I tried it. It worked great. No wonder they dont put their telephone number anywhere in their package. Their tech service is terrible.

I have been using Dragon for over 10 years starting with version 11 and version 13 and when I tried to upgrade to version 15 and import my profile to the new version, I found out thats not possible. So I have over 10 years of specific terminology and medical terms that I have to start all over to rebuild since they didnt bother to make it possible to retain the old profile. Im sorry to have upgraded – shouldve stayed with version 13

Im a writer, and I resisted getting dictation software for age. It seemed silly, especially since typing is pretty far down the list of things that are difficult to do. But I finally caved after an acquaintance of mine said she used it for recapping client sessions. It was one of my best business decisions Ive ever made. I fly through rough drafts now, and Ive found its an excellent tool to power through writers block and work out a plot or concept. It starts out a bit shaky because you have to train it (it was particularly fun teaching it how to swear, but thats just because Im immature), but Im a few weeks in and Ive never made so much progress on my writing as I have since I got this program. I installed it on my desktop and laptop with no problems. The headset included didnt work for me, Im not sure why (hence the four stars), but it works just fine with the Rosetta Stone headset I already had.

Dragon Naturally Speaking works very well on both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10s Operating System. However, you may need to make sure that you override any other dictation programs (including ones which may be associated with Microsoft Office for it to work properly). So long as you make sure your computer meets all of the minimum requirements this program should work well. This is very important as this program in conjunction with your OS and your Office program will use up a lot of memory. The program is very accurate right out of the box, however, following the instructions will allow for greater accuracy. Please note this review is for the Windows version of Dragon and not the MAC version. Order: Product shipped very quickly, with all component in the package. Product worked exactly as described and per system requirements.

I had a very unexpected stroke several moths ago and my left hand still isnt completely back so this has been a real help. Except when I edit -- and I admit I do that a lot -- it cant seem to remember where we are on a page so I almost always have to go back and fix something or other manually. Maybe I dont speak Dragon well enough yet.

It works. Sometimes, it takes a while for it to start especially if it has been idle.