Windows 7 Voice Recognition

I want to voice-control my computer.

Introduces the voice recognition feature on your computer.

If you are a slow typist, or have difficulty or discomfort when using a keyboard, software that allows you to talk to your computer might help.

Windows 7 Voice Recognition

Voice recognition is an alternative to typing on a keyboard. It is useful for people with physical disabilities who often find typing difficult, painful or impossible.

Open ' Ease of Access ' click to select Start button or press ' Windows ' logo key and using TAB and arrow keys select ' Control Panel ' + ' Ease of Access ' + ' Speech Recognition ' see Fig 1.

Fig 1

Ease of Access center and speech recognition options

Click to select or press ' Alt ' + ' S ' to ' Start Speech Recognition ', see Fig 2.

Fig 2

Start speech recognition

If this is the first time running speech recognition you will be prompted to setup your microphone.

To check your microphone is working click ' Setup Microphone ' or press ' Alt ' + ' M '.

' Tab ' to or click the kind of microphone you are using, see Fig 3.

Fig 3

set up speech recognition

Click ' Next ' or press ' Alt ' + ' N '.

You will see a screen on placing your microphone.

Click ' Next ' or press ' Alt ' + ' N '.

Next you are asked to read a sentence on screen and you see a slider in the volume bar move as you speak, see Fig 4.

Fig 4

adjust microphone volume

Click ' Next ' or press ' Alt' + 'N '.

The microphone is setup, click to select or ' Tab ' to ' Finish ' and press 'Enter '.

If this does not happen, see the Trouble shooting section.

You can now start dictating, however the recognition will not be accurate as the computer has not 'learnt' your voice.

Click to select or press ' Alt ' + ' R ' to select ' Train your computer to better understand you '. This takes 5 minutes and you can take further units if you want.

Read the Welcome screen text, click ' Next ' or press ' Alt ' + ' N '.

Read the training text.

To select ' More Training ' click to select or press ' Alt + ' M '.

Select ' Finnish ' or press ' Alt ' + ' F '.

After you have done this the computer should recognise your voice.

For a list of speech commands click ' Open reference card ' or press ' Alt ' + ' C '.

Further customisation of speech recognition in Windows 7 is available

Select ' Text to Speech ' from ' Speech Recognition Options '.

Select the ' Speech Recognition ' tab.

Fig 5

From this window you can select a user voice profile if the computer is used by different people.

Press ' Alt' + 'R ' to run speech recognition from start up.

Press ' Alt' + 'O ' to review documents to improve accuracy.

Select ' Voice activation mode ' for users who cannot start speech recognition with the keyboard, mouse or other input device.

You can also fine tune the microphone from this window.

Note: If this does not work it could be because your computer settings cannot be changed due to local IT policies - contact your local IT support for further help.