Solved The new Dragon Professional 16.x - anyone find it works on Windows 7?

[Clippy84]

Hi all. Anyone know if the audio transcription software Dragon Professional 16.x can work on Windows 7? It was recently purchased by Microsoft, and v16 was released in February 2024 with "Windows 10 and 11" as the system specifications. I'm referencing the official UK site here, for the specs.

However, Dragon Professional v15 works fine for me on Windows 7.

So... I'm wondering if the v16 system specs are just Microsoft hype for Windows 10 and 11? Anyone know?

 

[townsbg]

So... I'm wondering if the v16 system specs are just Microsoft hype for Windows 10 and 11? Anyone know?

I don't know much about that software but M$ is going to say to use 10+ on any of the newest versions of their software and it some cases they might block using it on older versions of windows. This isn't just hypothetical but it's their history. All major software companies are pushing us to abandon 7 for 10 or 11.

 

[Clippy84]

Short answer: I can answer it myself, with the help of someone who has tried it. The answer is no. It appears that Dragon Professional Individual 15.3 is as far as it goes, with Windows 7.Long answer: "Dragon is very persnickety about previous versions. Simply uninstalling them is not enough. The official DPG_DPI_15_Cleaner.exe needs to be run first. Then you ensure that Windows DAC is enabled. Then a PC reboot and registry cleaner to ensure the cleaner has done it's work. After that the 16.1 installer will deign to install, but must install Visual C++ 2019 Redistributable in both 64-bit and 32-bit flavours." (At least it offers to do this, useful because these installs may mess with other software you have, such as Microsoft Publisher). "After that the Dragon installer then continues, getting past several apparently minor error warnings, only to fail with a critical error at the end... and 'roll back' the whole process." So it's a no-go on Windows 7, apparently.