I own an HP Pavilion and another old Dell OptiPlex. On the older machine is
installed Dragon Naturally Speaking version 10. Is there any way for me to
remove this program from the older computer and reinstall on it on my new
computer? Thank you so much for your time.
In this excerpt from
Answercast #29, I look at the issue of moving software from one computer to
another: it requires some sort of installation media and often needs
current activation codes.
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Can you move software?
It depends. If you have the original download or media from Dragon Naturally Speaking version 10, then absolutely, you can uninstall the program from the old computer and install it on the new computer without any trouble.
You’ll probably need to re-enter the activation key or product code that you received when you purchased the program; but other than that, everything should work just fine.
Moving software
Now, what people are usually looking for when they ask this type of question is a way to transfer it without having that installation media.
The technical answer is no.
Software was not designed to be able to do that. In fact, the “uninstall, then reinstall from the original media” method is by far the preferred approach.
PC Mover
That being said, I would have you take a look at a product from Laplink called PC Mover. It’s actually intended to move entire sets of applications from one PC to another.
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How well it works, I honestly don’t know.
I know that it is not a free program, but it’s the one solution that I’m aware of. It’s been around for a long time and has a relatively good reputation.
Next from Answercast 29 – How can I make a external drive keep it’s same drive letter?
There is another issue here. I don’t believe Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.0 is compatible with Windows 7. Windows 7 requires Dragon Naturally Speaking 11.5.
There is a type of Windows software designed specifically for this, the term used to describe it is “portable”. I *much* prefer portable software and use portable versions of my email client and web browsers as a rule. In addition, portable software can be backed up, something that legacy/classic Windows software can not.
One source of portable Windows software is portableapps.com.