Simply put - nothing happens.

[AsterixTG]

Hi all,

On recommendation from some Star Citizen buddies, I was going to give VA a go - downloaded the trial .exe file from the official site as recommended, installed and literally nothing happens (run box ticked). Click on the shortcut, nothing happens, run as administrator, nothing happens - I've had Task Manager open during this and nothing happens or shows - running Windows 11 no issues with anything else - very odd. Not even an error message or a start and crash, just zero, nada, as if I haven't done anything.

So I then tried the paid for version on Steam - same, tried installing to different locations, same - nothing.

Checked that W11 is fully up to date, yup, language and speech installed, yup.

Totally at a loss - never had 'nothing' happen.

[Gary]

Hi, there.

Generally, since VoiceAttack is a Windows app developed and tested using Windows 11, it should 'just run'.  However, there are some cases where VA will not run (or appear to run).  First, check to make sure that you do not have an antivirus running that is stopping the VA process when it starts.  This is far less common lately, but every now and then a false positive will pop up.  Second, there could be corruption in the installation of VA - that doesn't seem to be the case in this situation, as the suggestion is usually to reinstall VA, and it looks like you've done so.  Third, there could be corruption of the Windows components that VA depends on.  This is usually remedied by running a system file scan - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system-files-79aa86cb-ca52-166a-92a3-966e85d4094e   I would run both the SFC and DISM steps to see if that helps out at all.

If that does not help, you might want to take a look in either your installation folder or your %APPDATA%\VoiceAttack folder to see if there is a file called 'VoiceAttackFault.txt'.  This may contain information about what is going on (actually, you might want to look for this first before doing anything else).

Lastly, there has a been a rash of incidents as of late reported by users that have used a 'cracked' version of VoiceAttack, which required the execution of an .exe.  This cracking tool also affects some components which causes VoiceAttack to hang.  I'm not sure that's the case here (as you would usually see something in Task Manager), but if that's the case, let me know as there are other steps you will have to take (usually a reinstall of Windows in place).

Hope something here helps!

[AsterixTG]

Hi Gary,

Thanks you for the reply - appreciate it.

Had a look at the various things - all ok - thought I'd try something else and downloaded the Beta version - worked like a charm.

This is great and annoying at the same time - great that it works, and works well - annoying in that I/we have no idea why the previous versions didn't work as it wasn't remedied by a fix. Guessing it's something daft at my end.

Thanks again.

[SemlerPDX]

...great that it works, and works well - annoying in that I/we have no idea why the previous versions didn't work as it wasn't remedied by a fix.

You don't consider installing and running the latest Beta version of VoiceAttack as a potential fix?  Given that you tried reinstalling (via the steam "paid" version you installed), and that didn't fix it, I would wager dollars to donuts that potential resolution with what could be a Win11 specific issue was achieved by installing the latest Beta version.  Gary does a lot of work in the Beta branch before committing these changes to the Release version.  Feels like a safe enough assumption, anyway, and likely would have been the next suggestion for you to try, beyond SFC and DISM steps of course.

[AsterixTG]

Well, yes - it is 'the' fix - but usually when problem solving you methodically work through possible issues, able to see what's the individual item that makes the difference.

It's like having your car looked at by a mechanic because it won't start and when you go to pick it up they simply have a new car waiting for you without explanation - nice, but you're none the wiser as to why the old one wouldn't work.

Anyway - thanks again, it's working great.

[SemlerPDX]

S'all good.

I think a better analogy would be bringing a car to the mechanic because the custom car alarm that worked perfectly on your old car to connect to your smartphone is not functioning correctly now when you try to connect your smartphone, and you tried updating the smartphone connect app and Android OS, verified the alarm system was installed properly on the new car according to directions, but still doesn't work.  The mechanic at the car alarm shop installs an updated beta firmware to the alarm system and it all of a sudden works as designed and expected, as if it wasn't designed to anticipate the new & more modern car systems because they use new tricks, and merely needed that tiny update.

The reason I suspected it was something along these lines was because you stated you are using Windows 11 (in its first years), and much like when Windows 10 came out while everyone was still using Win7, some applications did not play properly on Win10 until either the OS itself got its act together or the application was able to address an issue specific to a different operating environment.

The specifics of why may not be apparent outside a development environment where features like Just In Time debugging might pop up, or where certain areas of the code could be tested with some line-by-line step-through, etc.

Always nice when we can discover for ourselves why something was not working and present a clear reproduction case and variables/states to change, and I'm sure developers appreciate that too, but it's just not always possible. C'est la vie