How to Set Up Speech Recognition in Windows - Make Tech Easier

You can interact with your Windows device only through voice input without using a keyboard or mouse. After years of integrating voice control into Microsoft's software updates, we finally reached the perfect level. Follow these steps to set up voice recognition on your Windows laptop or PC.

Related : See how to set up voice access features closely related to voice recognition.

Table of contents

• What is voice recognition in Windows
• 1. Make sure your Windows microphone works properly
• 2. Pair external microphone (optional)
• 3. Setting up voice recognition in Windows

What is voice recognition in Windows

Voice recognition is a built-in feature in Microsoft that allows you to access your Windows computer without barriers through voice commands alone.

In the past, there was a similar feature called "Windows Speech Recognition (WSR)" but it has been deprecated. Voice access completely replaces it. The current online speech recognition version is used for dictation and trains Microsoft applications to adapt to the user's unique voice mode.

For Windows 11, you can access this feature from Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Voice -> Online Voice Recognition and turn it on. Windows 10 users should perform the same operations from Start- > Settings- > Privacy and Security- > Voice- > Online Voice Recognition .

Enabling voice recognition in Windows helps people with physical disabilities because interactions without manual operations feel more natural and intuitive. But more importantly, every PC user can open the app, dictate text and search for information through voice without spending more time than using a keyboard or mouse.

Turning off online voice recognition will not affect other Windows applications that use microphones. You can continue using the game bar, voice access, sound recording, Teams or Zoom. Here are the simple steps to set up voice recognition in Windows using built-in and external microphones.

Related : Increase microphone volume in Windows devices.

1. Make sure your Windows microphone works properly

Your Windows laptop has a microphone that is directly embedded in the device. It's easy to enable it: in Windows 11, go to Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Microphone . Here you need to turn on the microphone access switch.

Windows 10 users should navigate through Start- > Settings- > Privacy & Security- > Microphone and turn on Allow apps to access your microphone .

After the above adjustments, enable another setting to allow desktop applications to access your microphone . Under it, you will see an integrated application "Voice UX Configuration" with the last access timeline. The status of this application indicates that voice recognition is currently active on your Windows device.

There are many ways to test if your microphone is working properly. In Windows 11, go to System- > Sound- > Advanced- > More Sound Settings . For Windows 10, the path is Start -> System -> Sound , which will open a pop-up window. In both cases, the recording is entered. The green tick symbol indicates that there is no problem with the microphone.

My personal favorite is to chat with the Copilot app. You just need to click on the Copilot dialogue icon near its voice input area. If you have any issues with your PC microphone, you can make it work with our simple fix.

2. Pair external microphone (optional)

With most modern laptops, you can get very high-quality voice interaction with built-in microphones. However, as every podcast or video creator will tell you, an external microphone adds more clarity to your voice.

In Windows 11, go to Settings -> System -> Sound -> Pair New Devices and click Add Devices . For Windows 10 users, the path is Start -> Settings -> System -> Sound -> Input . Under the drop-down menu, you will find various microphones, including the system default ones.

For both cases, click Add Device to insert a new microphone. You can add a new microphone connected to the digital jack.

However, if the external microphone is connected via Bluetooth, there are several necessary steps to sync with your laptop. You can also use your smartphone for voice input.

Worth knowing : If your microphone has background noise issues, you can use the Voice Suppression feature and control it by removing ambient noise.

3. Setting up voice recognition in Windows

The next step is very simple. You just need to go to the online voice recognition page and turn on the switch. To further fine-tune it according to your personal voice, click Start to contribute my voice clip .

In the past, training tools would have asked you to actually test your voice. But in the latest version of Windows 11, the process has been automated. Now, every time you use a Microsoft application like Copilot, or dictation feature in Word, Microsoft automatically trains the device to suit your accent and voice style.

Note that by using it regularly, voice recognition will also become more familiar with your voice, so it should improve naturally as long as you continue to use it. In the past, this intuitive feature would have used a complete set of commands that are often used with deprecated Cortana applications.

These commands are still very useful, but you no longer need to remember them. Because today, Microsoft has turned to natural language processing (NLP) design, you just have to speak as usual.

In this guide, we see the most direct and easiest way to set up voice recognition in Windows. This is not the only useful accessibility feature. You can get high productivity on touch PC or tablet devices using the Windows on-screen keyboard. There is also Narrator, which can help you hear your words come alive.

Image source: DALL-E 3. All screenshots are courtesy of Sayak Boral.

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