Review by FALCON

I have been using DNS for almost 20 years, really! I depend on it to type for me. The last two versions cause a hanging problem that Dragon has been incapable of fixing. It is very frustrating. It works fine for a while then hangs/stalls.

The dufuses also put a part of the program in the temp directory. I don’t know if it happens on installation or training. But if you ever clean your disks like you should of cookies, temps, etc, it looses something it needs. Who in their right mind stores important program files in a temp directory?!nnIt is also incompatible with certain Flash versions, and can screw up Firefox as well if you use one of those versions. This is most likely Flash’s fault.

I am computer proficient and have a powerful computer. I reinstalled a few times,made a new user profile and tried solutions others suggested in their forums.

I can’t believe they have the nerve to try and charge such a high price for the upgrade to version 12. People on their forums say version 12 has the same problem. There is no excuse for such poor support for a program.

Do Not get it until you hear of a patch to fix the problems.

*******nOK it is time for an editnFarthion’s comments about posting system specs is well made. I agree. However antivirus programs should have no afftect on Dragon because Dragon does not mess with the Windows Kernel, Although you should briefly disable your antivirus program before installing most programs.

Major change: I need to revise my review. 3 stars now instead of 1.

I just rebuilt my system (I do it myself), and I must acknowledge that Dragon works very well on it. In fact it can keep up with me if I talk as fast as I can talk! Yeah, after training, it’s that fast. It still has some minor quirks, but they are not that much of a problem.

You need a better mic than the one supplied, but you do not need a new microphone. I have a quality 12-year-old Parrot, and it is working fine.

My new system has an Intel i7 3820 CPU, 16 GB of fast RAM, Asus Rampage 4 Formula motherboard, and I’m booting Windows 8 on an SSD drive, which is also where I installed Dragon. It is a gaming rig and work rig.

I’ve been testing DNS for almost a month now, and I happily acknowledge that it works very well, even on Windows 8. (You can install the free program Classic Start Shell to get past the hideous Windows 8 Metro screen and get back the Windows start button).

But there are still two problems.nIn an effort to sell the product, Nuance drastically underestimates the system requirements. Therefore they deserve the bad write-ups they get. This program needs a powerful system, not as powerful as the one I built, but not as weak as the one Nuance would have you believe.

They require certain programs (ie Natspeak.exe and Flexnet) to access the internet every time the program runs. It’s a type of spyware. Block them and the program screws up. This is ridiculous. Especially since their history for the past 10 years is to only update once, about 6 months after the program comes out, with a service pack and never again.