Windows software

All our Windows products, including ClaroRead, Scan2Text, ScreenRuler and ClaroCapture.

Neither Reading Nor Writing

We have lots of programs for lots of users with disabilities, though nowadays we concentrate on print impairments like dyslexia with our ClaroRead range and Apps.

Below is a run-down of our software for other needs. You can always check out Labs (https://www.clarosoftware.com/labs) for other software that might be of interest, or our complete commercial range. https://www.clarosoftware.com/all

Any questions about usage, do contact us at support@clarosoftware.com. If you are interested in licensing or developing any of these, let us know at sales@clarosoftware.com. (more…)

By Claro Software Admin, ago

Licence Keys

Our software uses Licence Keys to let you activate and use it on your machines while making it easy to distribute widely. You can look up your licence key and download the correct software by using our Licence Key Lookup: Licence Key Lookup If you have activated your software and Read more…

By Claro Software Admin, ago

Disabling ClaroUp

ClaroUp is our automatic software update program. It only runs when you run a Claro program: it doesn’t run in the background, or when Windows starts up. So it’s quite unobtrusive.

It also doesn’t show itself if the current user is not an Admin on the machine, so it should not bother users on networks or locked-down machines.

However, you may want to disable it entirely. You can do this by writing a per-machine registry key: (more…)

By Claro Software Admin, ago

Disabling Spellcheck in ClaroRead for exams

You may need to disable the spellcheck features in ClaroRead, for example if you are using it for exams. You can disable it in Settings, or install ClaroRead SE instead (it has no spellcheck: contact Support to get a copy if you have ClaroRead Standard or Plus). But you might want to disable it and prevent the user from being able to turn it back on.

You have two options: first, you can run a simple program that locks spellcheck off and password-protects it. You don’t need to be an admin, but this only turns it off for the current user. Second, you can set a per-machine registry key that disables spellcheck for any ClaroRead running on that machine. This is suitable for network administrators who want to disable ClaroRead using something like Group Policy.

The two options are detailed below. See also Exams for more about using Claro products in digital exams.
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By Claro Software Admin, ago

Installing Claro software on your network

Customers owning a site licence or multi-user licence version of a Claro product are able to distribute that product over multiple computers. This could be done by visiting each computer with the installers on a USB pen drive, and manually installing the product, but this would be very time-consuming. If the computers are connected on a network however it is possible to use Microsoft networking tools to distribute the software from a central location.
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By Claro Software Admin, ago

Fixing problems with starting up

Symptoms

  • “I try to start ClaroRead or WordRead but it only gets to about 75% of the progress bar and the form never actually appears.”
  • “ClaroRead just won’t start: it flashes then disappears.”
  • “Nothing happens when I double-click the ClaroRead icon.”
  • “ClaroRead or WordRead crashes with a message about LHCOM02w.dll.”
  • “Save to audio crashes.”

Diagnosis

  • Run ClaroRead, will not start up.
  • ClaroRead uses speech: broken speech systems will stop ClaroRead working. Try the tests on Fixing Problems with Speech and fix any problems you find first.
  • If you are on Windows Server, and/or receive a Windows error message about an application error (rather than the program hanging), or you receive a Windows error message about “Data Execution Prevention”, or you see the exception code 0xC000041D in Windows Application Event log, see Cure 2
  • Download and run SAPI4Test.exe, get error message “Component ‘Xvoice.dll’ or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid.” or one or more voices do not work. See Cure 1
  • If ClaroRead displays a message “Invalid Hard Disk!” while loading and will not go any further then you may have the Windows Script Host disabled or broken, see Cure 3.
  • If ClaroRead gets about one-third of the way loaded and then hangs, and also you cannot play any audio on your computer, then see Cure 4.

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By Claro Software Admin, ago

Fixing problems with speech

Symptoms

  • “It’s not reading anything any more!”
  • “I press Play and everything flashes really quickly in Word but no speech”
  • “I’ve installed a new piece of software and now ClaroRead/WordRead will not work”

Diagnosis

  • Make sure you can hear non-speech sound – try Windows Media Player, or go to YouTube, and play a CD or any sound. If you can’t, then you have to fix your sound first.
  • Download and run SAPI5Test.exe – none of the voices work.
  • Open Control Panel > “Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices”> “Speech”. The panel does not appear. Try Cure Number 2 first.
  • If it does appear, switch to one of the Microsoft voices (for example, Sam, Anna, or Hazel). Click the Preview button: no sound is produced, or an error message results. Try Cure Number 3 first.
  • 32-bit Windows machines only: If a Microsoft voice works, but some or all of the Claro voices (e.g. ScanSoft Daniel_Full_22kHz or Vocalizer Daniel) do not speak, then go to Cure Number 4.
  • 64-bit Windows machines: our Claro voices will not show up in the Speech dialog in Control Panel. However you can launch the 32-bit Control Panel window by downloading and running our Speech Control Panel program. Go straight to Cure Number 4.

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By Claro Software Admin, ago