When it comes to rabbit holes, our friend Ag seems to have a knack for digging, into which I often fall ... Some say simply stop digging.  But burrowing deeper down might also lead to new paths ...

Since I am getting busy and plan to make myself scarce, and this subject is in fact not for fools (at least not any fool but a special kind of "fools"), let's get on with it as opposed to waiting for Apr 1st.

Introducing EBox - "Embedded" Box.  

Ingredients:

1.  Two computers (at least one preferably mobile or USFF, and neither requires "high-spec")

2.  Two activations of Desktop Dragon

3.  Shokz OpenComm UC (ideally, less preferable Arena Wireless or any USB mic over a long cord)

4.  Remote screenshare software (NB: NOT RDP)

5.  AHK (or your choice of Win32 API wrapper that give easy access to Clipboard ... surely C# etc. will do)

TLDR on the choice of Screenshare Solution, for full automatic usage, ala DragonCapture (though triple or quadruple the hoops):

1.  Best: TeamViewer (but CDN$30/mth!)

2.  Middle: "Chromoting" (Chrome Remote Desktop) with Windows 10/11 Clipboard Syncing - free

3.  Third place: Anydesk - free (not sure whether time-limited)

All three are portable.  I have a fetish for portable wares.  So I only looked for those that are portable, or at least claim to be.  Anydesk turns out to have major caveats on the portability front.

P.S., if you searched this forum for "embedding", or "out-of-focus dictation", or Lindsay's "Reporter" (not yet released), or DNS.Comfort, and is still left scratching your head as to why anyone in their right mind would want/need such an "embedded box", then read no further please lest your time gets wasted - it's most likely not for you.

Testing was done on Dragon Medical One - mimicking desktop installation.

On the guest, assuming one created a text file called EBox.txt, and opened it with none other than Win32Pad:

NewText :=
Clipboard := ""

Loop
{
  ControlGetText, NewText, RichEdit20A1, EBox
  If (NewText != "")
  {
    Sleep, 50 ; the longer this interval, more likely to have the "123123456 BUG"
    ControlGetText, Clipboard, RichEdit20A1, EBox
    Sleep, 250
    NewText := ""
    ControlSetText, RichEdit20A1,, EBox
  }
}

On the host:

#Persistent
OnClipboardChange("NewTextArrived")
return

NewTextArrived(Type)
{
  If (Type = 1)
  {
    SendEvent, {Ctrl down}v{Ctrl up}
    ; Send, %Clipboard%
  }
}

Above is the bare minimum of "proof-of-concept" code snippets. Truly, YMMV

For "semi-automatic" use, something along the line of below on the guest should work:

F2::

WinActivate, EBox
Sleep, 100
EBoxHWND := WinExist("A")

Sleep, 100
ControlFocus, RichEdit20A1, ahk_id %EBoxHWND%
ControlSend, RichEdit20A1, {Ctrl down}a{Ctrl up}, ahk_id %EBoxHWND%
Sleep, 100
ControlFocus, RichEdit20A1, ahk_id %EBoxHWND%
ControlSend, RichEdit20A1, {Ctrl down}x{Ctrl up}, ahk_id %EBoxHWND%

Return

On the host, you'd probably "ControlSend" F2 to the Chrome or Anydesk window that contains the guest. Or just do it manually by hand, if you are just using the "EBox" as an anchored/out-of-focus Dragon Pad.

A few quick things so we can wrap it up. There is nothing groundbreaking about the "EBox". It's simply a different workflow, leveraging the myriad of screenshare solutions that blossomed over the last few years.

But it is a true "Automatic Box", without risk of focus-stealing, if you set it up with the right "polling code", as my testing demonstrates. Not to mention the anchoring itself is a feature.

Mic control can be accomplished through direct or out-of-focus hotkey passing through the simple AHK "ControlSend", with added robustness if preceded by a "ControlFocus" to the same hexadecimal "HWND". I tested that it worked in Chrome Remote.

I had great hopes on Chrome Remote Desktop as a lone solution. But upon actually "burrowing" down this rabbit hole, I came away disappointed that it was so close but missing the crucial last mile.

It syncs clipboard nice and fast, except that the syncing is only done when the CRD window is ACTIVE, i.e., receiving focus on the host. This defeats the purpose of out-of-focus automatic transfer. In fact I disabled clipboard sharing on CRD (which is essentially a browser setting), and relied on Windows clipboard syncing instead.

Windows clipboard syncing is not very fast, unfortunately.

Anyhow, if using CRD "semi-automatically", or manually as an anchored dictation source, then by itself it is more than sufficient. It's very responsive. And looks very good in full screen "native app" mode, too. And it is a cinch to setup and connect.

Anydesk has a nice, clean interface and free for personal use. But it requires Admin Credential for network access, despite being portable. And it has issue with my short demonstration code on the host, as it treats identical utterance as the "same dictation", and thus must not update the clipboard. That could be overcome with clearing clipboard after pasting and then Clipwait. But its clipboard operation on a whole is just not as snappy as TeamViewer.

TeamViewer clipboard syncing is the nicest. Makes the whole "EBox" routine truly automatic with the polling code I had on guest and host. Unlike Chrome, the TeamViewer window doesn't have to receive focus in order to sync clipboard. And I feel it syncs as fast as Chrome (when focused), maybe the fastest of all. Certainly faster and less hiccup-prone than Anydesk.

Windows clipboard syncing is the slowest. Why am I not surprised? And it requires converting my login account to a Microsoft account. Not worth it IMO.

The major hurdle with TeamViewer is that it starts at CDN$30/mth! Otherwise with "free personal use" it kicks you off the platform after 15-20 minutes.

Anyway, for me, I probably would go with 'Chromoting". If I acquire desktop Dragon 16 a little later, I would want to load it on my laptop. But I wouldn't want to work off of laptop's tiny screen. Therefore I wouldn't mind "Chromoting to it" while at work. CRD is portable but I hope institutional IT will let me install the necessary Chrome extension.

There is your box, Ag. I mean it, even if it isn't really a "box" per se as much as a workflow, it is still one I will be using when I get desktop Dragon, unless someone releases the "Reporter" style anchor box.

Will it produce the "123123456" bug? It will in fact, rarely, and can be avoided if one pays just slight attention. But that's a different subject. The bug is not reproduced in the same manner as with DragonCapture or my DMO over Quicken/Citrix/Terminal, where no amount of delay will avoid it, under certain settings.

But I have shown to myself conclusively, at least with DMO, that this bug can be reproduced even on Notepad, under certain artificial conditions. Will address it in a separate brief post.

Any relation to the infamous Steve Ballmer video...

"Give it up for me!"

"Crazy", if we say so.  "Villainous", not so much.