Dictation and Speech Recognition Blog
Dragon Medical One 2026.3 Is Available in the US — and LTSR Stops Working December 31
Dragon Medical One 2026.3Available now in the US — and the deadline behind it that matters more than the feature list
Microsoft has released the current build and recommends upgrading for its security patches. It has not published a public feature list. It has published something more consequential.
Dragon Medical One 2026.3 is available in the United States. Microsoft announced it on August 25, 2026, and pointed administrators to the Resource Center for the installer and the release notes. Those notes sit behind a login, so we are not going to tell you what is in them. We are going to tell you the part Microsoft has published — because for a large number of practices still running an older build, it is the more urgent fact by a wide margin.
Where 2026.3 sits
The date that matters more than the feature list
LTSR 2021.4.5 and earlier stop working after 31 December 2026.
Microsoft’s published upgrade documentation is unambiguous: the Dragon Medical Cloud blocks those versions. This is not a support-policy change or a deprecation warning — dictation stops. If any part of your organization is still on 2021.4.5 or older, that is a service-disconnection date, not a maintenance window.
How to check what you are running
The version appears in the lower-right corner of the Dragon Medical One sign-in screen. For a whole estate, run the Client Version report from the Reports tab in Nuance Management Center and read the Client Version column for every machine.
The number to look for
Anything beginning 2021 or earlier needs to move. Microsoft says so plainly. A 2026.x build means you are already on the current track and 2026.3 is a routine upgrade rather than a deadline.
Why the timing is tighter than it looks
An estate-wide upgrade is not one afternoon. It touches prerequisites, firewall rules, configuration files, virtual environments and EHR validation. Working back from 31 December, autumn is the comfortable window, not December.
What Microsoft actually said about 2026.3
It is available now
Dragon Medical One 2026.3 can be downloaded from the Resource Center for your region. Microsoft directs administrators there for both the current installer and the release notes.
Security patches are in this build
Microsoft states that Nuance follows a secure software development lifecycle, and that this version contains security patches as well as new features. Their recommendation is explicit: upgrade so you are on the most current and secure version.
Your EHR may still need to validate
Some EHR partners require additional validation before a Dragon Medical One release is considered fully compatible. Microsoft’s instruction is to check with your EHR vendor whether this release is subject to it — before a fleet-wide push, not after.
Service status is public
Dragon Medical Cloud publishes a real-time service status dashboard and a historical uptime and SLA compliance report. Both are updated automatically by Microsoft’s monitoring systems rather than by a ticket you have to open. Worth bookmarking.
What we are not going to tell you
The partner announcement does not list the new features, and there is no public page carrying them — the 2026.3 release notes are inside the Resource Center, behind a login. We checked.
So we will not guess at dictation changes, ambient changes or administrative changes to make this page look fuller. If you have seen a summary of “what’s new in 2026.3” that reads confidently, be careful: at least one circulating description confuses the New Dragon Architecture — the release track that has been in place across the 2026 builds — with something this release introduced. It did not.
When we have the notes in front of us, this post gets updated the way every release spoke in this cluster does: feature by feature, attributed to Microsoft, with the gates and the geography called out. Until then, treat this page as a go / no-go for the upgrade, not a what’s-new catalog.
What the upgrade actually requires
Operating system
Windows 10 or later on the client, with Windows 11 recommended. For virtualization servers, Windows Server 2012 R2 or later, with 2016 or later recommended.
Framework and runtime
.NET Framework 4.8 or later, plus Microsoft Edge WebView2. Both are easy to miss on older imaged workstations and both will stop an install cold.
Antivirus exclusions
Exclusions for the Dragon Medical One folder, its subfolders and all executables inside them — SoD.exe especially. Missing exclusions produce symptoms that look like recognition problems rather than security-software problems, which is why they cost so much support time.
Firewall and proxy access
The current track needs firewall exceptions beyond those the legacy LTSR required, and several of them are region-specific. If you are coming from 2021.4.5, this is not a copy-forward — it is a fresh list to work through with your network team.
Two traps worth naming
Do not reuse the old configuration file
Microsoft is direct about this: use the SoD.exe.config file shipped with the version you are installing. Do not carry the old one forward. Copy the values you need across instead — and review the old file for custom settings that are easy to forget, such as microphone button assignments, proxy settings and text control mappings.
Virtual environments need the current extensions
On Citrix, RDS or RemoteApp, use the latest client audio and button extensions from your region’s download page. Extensions belong on the client, not on the server — and older versions should be uninstalled rather than left in place. If you deploy the XCOPY package, unblock the zip before extracting and deploy to a local folder rather than a network share.
What to do this week
Find out what you are running
Run the Client Version report. If anything comes back 2021 or earlier, that machine has a December deadline and everything else on this page is secondary.
Ask your EHR vendor one question
Is this release subject to additional validation in our environment? If yes, wait for the answer before a fleet-wide push. If no, you can schedule the workstation pass.
Pull the installer and the notes
An administrator with Resource Center access downloads 2026.3 and reads the notes Microsoft did not publish publicly. That remains the only complete feature list.
Do not defer the security patches
Microsoft’s recommendation is explicit. A practice sitting on an older build is running unpatched software whether or not the new features matter to it.
Where 2026.3 sits if you are moving to Dragon Copilot
Dragon Medical One is still the front-end speech product a great many practices run every day. Dragon Copilot is the ambient documentation product Microsoft is building the market toward. They are different installs, and a Dragon Medical One point release does not convert you to anything.
If you are on Dragon Medical One and staying there, 2026.3 is the current US build — take it, take the patches, and check your version against the December deadline. If you are planning the move to Dragon Copilot, this release does not alter that plan; it just means the platform you are leaving from should be current and supported while you leave it.
Weighing the move from Dragon Medical One?
Our living, version-by-version breakdown of where each capability actually stands — the practical view, not the roadmap view.
Looking at where Copilot is now?
5.0 rebuilt the interface, added AI-built templates and opened a marketplace of clinical AI apps — the largest change since the product was renamed.
New to the name?
If you knew this technology as DAX or DAX Copilot, start here for the full picture of what the product is today.
Why go through Voice Automated
We read the notice the day it lands
This release was in our hands the morning Microsoft sent it. That is the cadence — we do not wait for a public write-up to tell our customers a build exists.
We will not pad a thin announcement
Where Microsoft did not publish the detail, we say so and point you at the source that has it. Practices have been burned by upgrade notes that over-promised.
We stay after the install
Three decades in healthcare voice. Authorized Microsoft partner, recognized #1 Best in KLAS for AI-Powered Cloud-Based Documentation (two consecutive years). The value is in the rollout, the training and the week afterwards.
Rolling out Dragon Medical One 2026.3?
Fifteen minutes with our implementation team — whether this is a quiet patch pass, whether your EHR still has a hold on it, and whether anything in your estate is facing the December cutoff.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Microsoft announced availability for the United States on August 25, 2026. The installer is downloaded from the Resource Center for your region, which is also where the release notes are published.
Microsoft has not published a public feature list for this release. The announcement states that the build contains security patches as well as new features, and directs administrators to the release notes in the Resource Center, which requires a login. We are not going to guess at the contents. If you have Resource Center access, those notes are the only complete list; if you do not, we can walk through them with you.
Microsoft’s published upgrade documentation states that LTSR version 2021.4.5 and earlier versions stop working after 31 December 2026, because the Dragon Medical Cloud blocks them. Organizations still running those versions need to upgrade before that date to avoid service disconnection. This is a hard cutoff rather than an end of support, so it is worth confirming your estate’s versions well ahead of it.
For a single machine, the version is shown in the lower-right corner of the Dragon Medical One sign-in screen. For an entire organization, open the Reports tab in Nuance Management Center, run the Client Version report, and review the Client Version column for each computer. Anything beginning with 2021 or earlier is affected by the December 2026 cutoff.
Microsoft recommends it, specifically because the release includes security patches alongside new features. Whether you can deploy it immediately is a separate question: some EHR partners require additional validation before a Dragon Medical One release is considered fully compatible, and Microsoft’s instruction is to check with your EHR vendor before rolling it out broadly.
Microsoft lists Windows 10 or later on the client with Windows 11 recommended, Windows Server 2012 R2 or later for virtualization hosts with 2016 or later recommended, .NET Framework 4.8 or later, and Microsoft Edge WebView2. Antivirus exclusions are required for the Dragon Medical One folder, its subfolders and its executables, particularly SoD.exe. The current track also needs firewall exceptions beyond those the legacy LTSR required, some of which are region-specific. Use the configuration file shipped with the new version rather than carrying the previous one forward.
No. Dragon Medical One 2026.3 is a point release of the front-end speech recognition product. Dragon Copilot is a separate ambient documentation product with its own release line. Installing 2026.3 does not migrate you to Dragon Copilot, and if you are evaluating that move, the migration status report is the better starting point than this installer.
Dragon Copilot is deployed on Microsoft Azure services that maintain HITRUST and SOC certifications. Product-level certification is not claimed, as the platform is the correct scope. Voice Automated is an implementation partner for these certified platform services.
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