Author Topic: a lot of odd behaviours  (Read 337 times)

hjkbortol

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a lot of odd behaviours
« on: July 17, 2024, 02:16:17 PM »
Hi!

I am experiencing several difficulties in getting VoiceAttack to work on my computer. I purchased and downloaded the 64-bit version from https://voiceattack.com/.
  • When I install the software, the default installation path is "C:\Program Files (x86)," which indicates it is a 32-bit version. However, I downloaded the 64-bit version, which seems quite odd.
(2) in the first run, voice attak asked me to run as administrator.

(3) but running as a adinistrator always gives me  this error message:

VoiceAttack Message
VoiceAttack is unable to find a working speech engine on this computer.
Normally, Windows includes an installed speech recognition engine with certain versions of Windows in certain locales. This computer, however, does not appear to have a speech recognition engine installed that VoiceAttack can detect, or the speech facilities that are installed are not functioning properly or are disabled. In simplest terms, VoiceAttack is asking Windows for a list of speech engines that it can use, and Windows is saying there are none available.
It is possible to acquire a usable speech engine for use with VoiceAttack, but it will require a few more steps from you to make this happen. Click the link below to read about additional speech engines for VoiceAttack.
Click here to learn more about alternate speech engines that you may be able to install and use with VoiceAttack.

this is  odd because I can dictate in Portuguese using the keystroke combination Windows + H.

(2).As suggested, I installed the alternate speech recognition system,
     Finally, Voice Attack  started and asked me to train the speech recognition. but then, when I try to train,
the following error message appears:

Quote
Set Up Speech Recognition Experience

Windows Speech Recognition is not available for the current display language.

my display language is portuguese (Brazilian).


You know I have an impairment; my left arm is disabled. I believe that VoiceAttack can significantly improve and facilitate my use of the computer, but unfortunately,  threre is issue after issue.

Please help!

Thanks in advance, Humberto.

Gary

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Re: a lot of odd behaviours
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2024, 06:48:47 PM »
Hi, Humberto -  I recognize your user name from Steam:  https://steamcommunity.com/app/583010/discussions/0/6426157204237206583/

Sorry to hear about your arm.  Hopefully this can help out some.

First up,  what happens with the installer for VoiceAttack is that it checks for a previous installation of VoiceAttack and suggests that folder as a starting point.  In your case, the installer found a previous installation in C:\Program Files (x86)\VoiceAttack, and defaulted to that location.  This is a convenience feature for those that have had previous installations in a particular folder.   If this was a clean install, VoiceAttack's installer would have chosen C:\Program Files\VoiceAttack as the installation path.  Note that just like most installers, the path that is suggested can be changed to any folder that you have rights to install to.   Note also that because it was installed in the C:\Program Files (x86)\ folder does not necessarily indicate that it is a 32-bit application.  64-bit applications can be installed in the (x86) folder, just as 32-bit applications can be installed in C:\Program Files\. 

Next up, perhaps as a result of language barrier, VoiceAttack does not indicate that it MUST be run as an administrator.  It only suggests that if there is an issue with executing commands that you may want to try running as an admin.  That is, Windows will block applications not running as an administrator from accessing applications that are running as an administrator.  That message is meant as a way to curb the number of support requests indicating that VoiceAttack would not work with certain applications.   Again, it is merely a suggestion, and if you can get by without running anything as an administrator on your PC, that would be ideal.

VoiceAttack's tip screen on startup will continue to suggest that you train your speech engine.  This is because VoiceAttack's tip screen should probably be updated to say that speech training is not needed when using the Speech Platform 11 engines.  Apologies for that.   Note again that you will not be able to train the speech engine that you have installed.

If you have followed the instructions on the site ( https://voiceattack.com/alternate ), you would have installed both the runtime AND the speech engine for Portuguese.  Did you install both of these?

https://www.voiceattack.com/speechengines/SpeechPlatformRuntime64.msi     <--- runtime
https://www.voiceattack.com/speechengines/MSSpeech_SR_pt-BR_TELE.msi    <--- speech engine