Dragon speech recognition software is a productivity tool that sits like an umbrella over all of your applications. The Dragonbar floats near the top of your screen to show you Dragon’s loaded, giving you quick access to switch the microphone on and off. If it’s not near the top of the screen, you can also check the tray icon area to see if there’s a little red microphone icon, which indicates Dragon is loaded but may be in its most minimised setting. You can right-click on this icon to make adjustments or access the Dragonbar.
A resource-intensive software programme it’s a good idea to ensure your PC has the best resources available to run the system optimally. Getting a decent processor speed, the next thing is to ensure you have enough memory to allow Dragon and switch between and run multiple programmes simultaneously. Try to get in the habit of only having the windows open that need to be accessible. This reduces the spread of computing resources so that you require for Dragon to hook into each application in order to remain compatible or usable within text fields.
If your PC is running slower when Dragon’s loaded and running, this typically speaks to Dragon being at fault. However, if Dragon’s not loaded – the operational speed of the system isn’t typically related to Dragon. You can have a setting where Dragon saves recorded speech, which can lead to your PC clogging up and thus slowing down. However, if Dragon isn’t running and your PC is sluggish, chances are it’s not Dragon’s fault. In some instances it’s a good idea to give your Windows environment a refresh, especially if you’ve been running your PC for several years without a clean sweep.
Another tip is to open Dragon first and then open other applications to ensure that it’s got a chance to load its applet with each new programme. Incompatibilities and background processes can lead to poor performance issues but it’s usually a good idea to run a Repair or reinstall Dragon to ensure that you’ve eliminated some of these issues.
One thing that many users aren’t aware of is the cold reboot. PC users tend to think that a restart of the PC is the equivalent of switching the PC off and then on again. However, there’s a distinct difference in that a cold reboot completely clears the memory and is a proper refresh of the system resources. Sometimes this can remedy a great many “issues”. Keeping Dragon running continuously isn’t the best idea either because your profile needs to be saved from time to time and rebooting the system can help keep everything in check.