VoiceAttack Beta Participation

[gmagenheimer]

TL;DR - Instructions at the bottom ;)

VoiceAttack's beta builds are usually loaded up with features that will be in the upcoming versions of VoiceAttack, or might also contain fixes for issues that have not yet made it to full release. Up until now, VoiceAttack's beta builds for Steam users had to come from a zipped folder that you would need to download, unzip and copy to your Steam installation folder. This was a bit of a chore which made it a barrier to some. Now, you can simply opt into receiving VoiceAttack's beta builds through Steam, and Steam will install the builds for you automatically as they become available.

Understand that the guarantee on this is there is no guarantee. A lot of testing is done before release, however, beta builds of VoiceAttack may have problems that could very well interrupt your evening plans. As such, if you opt into VoiceAttack beta builds (instructions below), you do this at your own risk... although rolling back just involves a few steps indicated below (that is, if you back up your VoiceAttack.dat file*).

*As with any software update, before you begin you will want to make a backup of your VoiceAttack.dat file -- this is the file that holds the profiles you've been working hard to create. Information about VoiceAttack's data storage is located here: https://forum.voiceattack.com/smf/index.php?topic=1639.0 It's good to back that file up now and then anyway, right?


Notes:

- The beta build is only currently available as 64-bit.
- VoiceAttack beta builds may contain features and/or fixes that may not make it into the final release of the product.
- The change log for the beta versions of VoiceAttack can always be found here: https://www.voiceattack.com/changesbeta
- Please (pretty please) make sure that any issues found in the beta builds are reported in the #beta-chat channel of the VoiceAttack Discord server (http://www.voiceattack.com/discord) so all this fun stuff can be kept organized.

Instructions on how to opt into VoiceAttack beta builds:

First, close VoiceAttack.

Next, go into your Steam library, locate the VoiceAttack item in the list and then right-click on it. From the menu that opens, click 'Properties'.

When the Properties window opens, you should see a selection labeled, 'BETAS' on the left side. If you do NOT see 'BETAS' as a selection, you will need to restart Steam (I've had to do this on several occasions). This *may* mean either killing the Steam process(es) from Task Manager or just rebooting (might be easiest if you just reboot).

From the BETAS selection, there will be a drop-down list labeled, 'Select the beta you would like to opt into'. Open the list and select appropriate item (as of this writing, there should only be one item to choose, however, that may change later).

VoiceAttack should automatically update at some point shortly after you make your choice or close the Properties window. Again, this may require a restart of Steam (I've had to restart Steam at this point also).

To stop using VoiceAttack beta builds and revert back to the full version of VoiceAttack, simply follow the same instructions as above. Instead of selecting a beta build from the dropdown list, simply select 'None'. Steam *should* restore the full version after a few moments. Again, you may need to end up restarting Steam or just simply rebooting.

Take care and have a great weekend!