"Hot Key has been disabled" in Dragon

Problem

When launching Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10.1, the following message may be displayed:

“The Clear Variable Delimiters Hot Key has been disabled because the same hot key is in use by another application. You may use the Options dialog to select a different hot key.”

The specific Hot Key referenced in the above error message may vary.

Cause

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is attempting to register a hot key, but a separate application has already registered that same hot key.

Solution

The Clear Variable Delimiters hot key is not configurable from the “Hot Keys” tab in the “Tools > Options” dialog. We recommend manually disabling the hot key(s) in the “options.ini” file. Each user profile will have a unique “options.ini” associated to that user.

To disable the “Clear Variable Delimiters Hot Key”:

  1. Exit from all open applications, including Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10.1.
  2. Navigate to the following folder:
    • Windows Vista, 7 or Newer: C:\ProgramData\Nuance\NaturallySpeaking10\Users\[USER]\current
    • Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Nuance\NaturallySpeaking10\Users\[USER]\current
  3. Right click on the “options.ini” file and select “Open With”, then select Notepad as the program to open the file.
  4. Under the “[Options]” heading, enter “Clear Variable Delimiters Hot Key=0,0”.
    For example, the “options.ini” file should now display:
    [Options]
    Clear Variable Delimiters Hot Key=0,0
  5. Click File, then Save and close the “options.ini” file.
  6. Launch Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10.1.

Note: Other potential hot keys that can cause conflicts may include:

  • Select Next Variable Hot Key
  • Select Previous Variable Hot Key
  • Transfer Text Hot Key

If the error message being displayed is referencing one of these hot keys, follow the steps above to modify the “options.ini” file, but replace the text in Step 4 with corresponding hot key. For example:
[Options]
Select Next Variable Hot Key =0,0

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