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We spent what amounted to more than two hours with a polite, bright tech support representative who offered a workaround. The issue was related to a known bug in Windows Vista. Or had it? We were caught in a catch-22 of circular commands after rebooting more than a dozen times. It took more than 10 minutes to install Visual C++ 8.0 Runtime, only to find out it hadn't fully installed.

Unfortunately, Windows Vista installation was a nightmare. Installing Dragon 10 on two Windows XP machines took around 20 minutes without incident. And if you already have the latest version on a PC, don't overwrite it with a lesser-featured version that may be bundled with a new, supported digital voice recorder. Make sure to uninstall an earlier version of Dragon if you have one. The $1,199 Legal edition also helps you dictate briefs and court documents. We wish a USB headset were an option you'll have to buy a dongle to hook up the mic-in headset to a USB slot. We tested the $899 Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional 10, which adds support for forms, networking capabilities for an office, and the choice of a standard or Bluetooth headset. Preferred Mobile adds a digital voice recorder. Preferred, for $199, includes software voice commands as well as support for mobile devices. If you only need a tool to type as you talk and don't want to dictate commands to software or for Web searches, then opt for the $99 Standard edition of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. You'll also need a noise-canceling headset microphone, a 16-bit or equivalent sound card, and a DVD drive. (ViaVoice for the Mac, which uses Nuance's technology, is no longer updated.) It requires 512MB of RAM and 1GB of free hard-drive space. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 runs only on Windows XP or 2000 SP4 or higher or on Vista, so Mac users are out of luck.

Alternatives to dragon naturally speaking software