“Unable to find the file: C:\Windows\Speech\VCMD.exe” or "Speech.dll" is an older file.

Products: Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7, 8, 9, 10

Problem:

When attempting to launch Dragon NaturallySpeaking, one of the following errors may appear:

• “Unable to find the file: C:\Windows\Speech\VCMD.exe”
• “Unable to find the file: C:\WINNT\Speech\VCMD.exe”
• "The file C:\WINDOWS\speech\speech.dll is version 4.0.x.xxxx. Naturally Speaking requires version 4.0.4.2512 to run reliably."
• "The file SAPIDLL.DLL did not register itself"

Solution:

Please follow these steps to reinstall Microsoft Speech API:

1. Click here to download the file "spchapi.exe".
2. Close out of all open applications running on the system.
3. Double-click the file "spchapi.exe" to start the installation.
4. Reboot the computer.

You should now be able to launch Dragon NaturallySpeaking without any errors.

TechNote Number: 4280 Published: 4/15/2003 Last Modified: 8/28/2008

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