Windows Speech Recognition Not Working

[Irritatedmonkey]

okay so i have a laptop running 64bit windows 7, and i tried installing voxcommando on it but when i opened the program i got an error message saying that the speech recognition engine failed and then after that i had another error message saying uncaught application. I already have vox commando on my 32 bit laptop so i was wondering what could have caused this problem?

[nime5ter]

1. What folder have you installed VC to?
2. Can you try to provide the exact error messages or post a screenshot?
3. Are you running an English US version of W7? If not what are you running?
4. Which version number of VoxCommando are you trying to install?

In general, there are no known issues specific to 64-bit Windows 7 vs. 32-bit.

[Irritatedmonkey]

i have installed VC to a folder on my desktop called VC, i have English GB windows. Here are the error messages.

unable to start engine - problem with culltures
System.ArgumentException: No recognizer of the required ID found.
Parameter name: culture
   at System.Speech.Recognition.Speech.SpeechRecognitionEngine..ctor(CutureInfo
culture)
   at VoxCommando.Main.InitializeSpeechRecognitionEngine()

and then,


"Unhandled exception error has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.

Retrieving the  COM class factory for component with CLSID {148F7BB6-4C53-8E30-0F9115D30283} failed due to the following error: 80040154."

i have tried running as an admin bu it doesn't improve

[Irritatedmonkey]

sorry and its version 1.1.8.8

[nime5ter]

Thanks for the details. It may take a while before James (the expert) can respond, but in the meantime, please try the following:

Click 'continue' when given that error message.

Go into VC Options > General tab, and check what is showing as the Speech Recognition Language on the right-hand side: http://voxcommando.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=File:Options_1-186.png

If it is blank or says something other than en-GB, click on dropdown box and find your language if it is there (I'm assuming en-GB based on the info you provided above).

Assuming your language pack is properly installed, it should be there and you can then "Save and Close" and restart.

---
Please report back whether it works or not. If it does not work, please update us on what you saw and what occurred. Thanks.

[Irritatedmonkey]

en-GB is there but i think it may be a problem with my speech recognition, i get another error saying

the requested task cannot be carried out because the necessary engine could not be created. Please try a different engine and or a different audio device, this is when i try to create a new recognition profile.

[jitterjames]

The first prerequisite to be able to run VoxCommando (version 1) is that you must be able to run Windows speech recognition, since it is built upon the same engine.  If you can't run Windows speech recognition then you won't be able to get VC to work either.

If you only have En-GB installed then I thought you would still be able to get speech recognition working, but I'm not sure.

Which version of Windows 7 do you have?  I recommend that you install the full language packs for En-US and En-GB if you need that.  On Windows 7 Ultimate this can be done very easily  using Windows Update: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/downloads/install-languages-with-windows-update

It is important to note that there are two types of language packs.  There is just the small version which includes translations of text for windows menus, buttons, etc. These packs are available for many languages.

Then there are the full blown language packs that include the speech recognition stuff.  These are only available for some languages. (English US+GB, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese).

If you don't have Windows 7 Ultimate then there are some unofficial workarounds that allow you to install the full language packs.  I believe all version of Windows 8 have this option.

VC2 (when it is released) will allow you to use a different speech engine which can be downloaded to any Win 7 machine, but which has different characteristics than the "desktop" based speech engine.

If you are able to get speech recognition running on Windows and you are still having problems getting VC to work we will solve that problem later.

[jitterjames]

This is a view of Windows Update.  Notice that the Japanese and Spanish language packs are larger.  This is because they include the Speech Recognition doodads.  I already have all the other SR enabled packs installed (En, De, Fr, Cz) so they don't appear in this list.