If, when starting up Rosetta Stone, the microphone configuration stage where you have to repeat "1 2 3 4 5" takes longer than a few steps (On average I was repeating them 13 times! Now down to 1.), here is what you can do to fix it:

1. In the bottom right hand side of your screen, right  click the speaker icon and click "Recording devices"
2. Find your microphone (usually the one with a big green tick on the picture) and left click it
3. Now click the "Configure" button at the bottom left of the window
4. Choose "Setup Microphone"
5. Check the appropriate radio box according to your type of microphone and click "Next" twice
6. Now read the sentence in bold. On Windows 7 it is, "Peter dictates to his computer. He prefers it to typing, and particularly prefers it to pen and paper".
7. Click "Next" and finish the wizard.

These steps configure the volume level of your microphone. It significantly increased mine, meaning Rosetta Stone could hear me more clearly and I would not have to keep repeating the "1 2 3 4 5" step.