On behalf of NCRA’s Technology Committee, the JCR staff contacted the makers of CAT software products to ask if the different software products were ready for users to update to Windows 10. While representatives from all five companies said that users could update when they were ready, they all suggested that it may be wise to wait until more of the Windows 10 operating system’s bugs were found and the operating system has been further updated.
Microsoft is frequently releasing updates that are automatically made to Windows 10 to fix problems. Newer versions should also contain all the updates made to date.
All five companies asked that users who do have problems report them so that the companies are aware of them.
Advantage/Eclipse
“As of this time, all Advantage Software products are compatible with Windows 10. As always, should any issues come to light, they will be immediately addressed by our research and development department and a resolution (in the form of an update) would be posted on our website,” said Cathy Barbre, one of Advantage Software’s inside sales representatives. Advantage’s website is eclipsecat.com.
Gigatron/StenoCAT
“StenoCAT and TrialBook Realtime Streaming are compatible with Windows 10. The latest releases were thoroughly tested in Windows 10 prior to Microsoft’s public release. Many of our users already successfully use Windows 10 with StenoCAT. We encourage users to keep their operating system and CAT software up to date,” said Viki McCrary with Gigatron’s sales department.
ProCAT/Winner
“All the in-house testing shows that ProCAT products are compatible with Windows 10, whether you are a steno user or a voice user,” said Lisa Gonzalez, ProCAT’s technical support manager.
“Having said that, there are some disadvantages to Windows 10 that might be a factor in not updating just yet,” Gonzalez said, citing a ProCAT user who reported being unable to boot up after updating to Windows 10. “The fix for this was to wipe the drive and start again with the user staying off of Windows 10.”
“The other factor — at least for me, although it might affect others, too — is the Windows 10 automatic updates. You cannot completely turn off automatic updates. So you must adjust the time in which it will download and restart if necessary. In other words, you will be in the middle of something important, and Windows will want to restart your computer. So, while we are compatible with Windows 10, I think it would be a wise decision to wait for Microsoft to address the infant mortality issues,” said Gonzalez.
Stenovations/digitalCAT
“We have tested our current version of digitalCAT on Windows 10. We did not find any direct issues,” said Johnny Jackson, owner of Stenovations. “However, there is a small extra step that must be taken when installing digitalCAT for the first time on a Windows 10 computer. The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 needs to be installed before the current installer can start. The .NET Framework is available from Microsoft. It is around 300 megabytes and requires an Internet connection. This extra step only needs to be taken the first time.”
“We are working on a new installer to avoid this extra step. It should be ready in September,” Jackson added.
Stenograph/Case CATalyst
“Stenograph spent several months testing Case CATalyst with Windows 10 and found versions 12 through 16 compatible. As with all updates, Stenograph recommends making backups of your work before updating to Windows 10,” said Dan Petersen, Stenograph’s director of marketing.
