In order for Windows Speech Recognition to work properly it needs to be trained so that it’ll understand your voice and the way you speak. Training Windows Vista’s Speech Recognition is done by reading a few sentences as it listens.

Let’s get started.

Train Windows Vista’s Speech Recognition

1. Click the Start button and then click Control to open the Control Panel.
2. Switch to Classic view if you’re not already using it by clicking Classic view in the left column of the Control Panel.
3. Open Speech Recognition Options.
4. Click Train your computer to better understand you.
5. The Speech Recognition Voice Training wizard will open. Click Next to start.

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6. A series of sentences will appear for you to read while it listens. You can pause it at any time by clicking the Pause button.

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   Note: If you read a line and it doesn’t go to the next one, wait a few seconds and read it again.

7. Once you’re finished training Windows Vista’s Speech Recognition you can either click Finished to quit or More Training to train it some more.

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You can re-train Speech Recognition as many times as you’d like.

Speech Recognition Tips

• Don’t give up: This is a taste of what’s to come in the future, so get used to it. When you first start using speech recognition you might feel like your grandma using a computer for the first time. The more you use it the better you get at it.
• It learns: The more you use Windows Speech Recognition the better it works because it learns as you use it.
• Reference Card: Study over the command reference ^[4] to learn how to get the most out of speech recognition.
• Use the tutorial: Although Windows Vista’s Speech Recognition is very easy to use once you get the hang of it, it helps to go through the tutorial a few times to learn a few basic things about it. Go to Speech Recognition Options in the Control Panel (classic view) and then click Take Speech Tutorial.