Microsoft Speech Recognition Setup on Vista/Windows 7

1. Under Windows Vista, the first thing you will want to do is set the Speech Recognition Microphone dialog that controls Microsoft Speech Recognition so that it is off and hidden.
2. Go to the Speech Recognition Options in the Control panel and click the Start Speech Recognition link.



3. This will being up the Speech Recognition Microphone dialog.



4. Turn off Speech Recognition by right clicking in the Speech Recognition Microphone dialog and select Off: Do not listen to anything I say.
5. By turning this off only grammars loaded by Killers VoiceCommand will be active in Windows Vista and the active application.
6. Now you can simply click the - button in the lower right corner of this dialog to minimize the Speech Recognition Microphone dialog to hide it away from view.



7. This will hide the Speech Recognition Microphone dialog from view but is still accessible from the tray of icons in the lower right hand corner of windows or from the control panel.
8. Next we will make sure that the Microsoft Speech Recognition is setup and configured to your microphone and voice for ultimate performance.
9. From the Speech Recognition Options dialog click on the Advanced speech options.



10. This will bring up the Speech Properties dialog.



11. Make sure you have Microsoft Speech Recognizer 8.0 for Windows or higher selected in the Language dropdown.
12. Next make sure that Run Speech Recognition at startup is unchecked (recommended) so that Speech Recognition isn't started each time you start windows and only when it is needed.
13. First thing you will want to do is set your Audio Input...



14. Make sure your headset or microphone is checked in the Playback tab



15. In the Recording make sure you have your choice of microphone you will be using for Killers VoiceCommand checked off.
16. Click Ok or Apply to apply settings and close this dialog.
17. Next we will click on the Advanced... button in the Speech Properties dialog to bring up the Audio Input Settings dialog.



18. Make sure you have the correct audio input device selected or use Use preferred audio input device.
19. Next we will click the Configure Microphone... button to train and adjust the volume of your microphone.



20. Select the microphone of choice. I have a headset so I will select Headset Microphone and click the Next button.



21. Next follow the steps in this dialog for your microphone and click the Next button.



22. Now simply read the sentence "Peter dictates to his computer. He prefers it to typing, and particularly prefers it to pen and paper."
23. Make sure you stay in the green for optimum volume setting.
24. Once you have read the sentence clearly then click on the Next.



25. Click Finish to complete the wizard.