How can I use talk to text in Win10? Is it possible?

Windows Version 21H2
Build 19044.1766


I've had my laptop for maybe 6 years now. Sometimes I get the urge to try talk to text. It's really nice on my phone, but I've never seen it on my laptop, even though my laptop has more processing power than my phone. Then when I try finding it, I come up empty. Here's my experience today:

I googled the subject and it said to hold the Windows key and press H. I get a message at the top of the screen that reads, "To use dictation, go to settings and turn on online speech recognition".

So, Settings, Time and Speech, Speech. Under Microphone and "set up your mic for speech recognition", I click the button that says, "Get Started". Then a dialog box comes up that says, "Detecting Problems", and then it says, "An unexpected error has occurred. The troubleshooting wizard can't continue". At the bottom of the box, I click "View error details", and I get this:

dalchina said:

Hi, that's a new one. And I find I see exactly the same error with that Troubleshooting step- but Dictation works for me (on 2 different PCs, same build)
I begin to suspect a bug there.. needs confirmation from others.

Does your microphone work in any other context?
What sort of microphone are you using?
Have you tweaked your PC in any way e.g. modified services?

Try Speech Recognition: been there since Windows Vista I think.

From the huge searchable Tutorial section (have you had a look?)
Start Speech Recognition in Windows 10
- there are numerous other linked tutorials - see the list after the main text.

Not only does this support dictation quite fully, it also gives some control over your PC. There's a complete command reference sheet.

Be careful to set up your microphone and speech language to match your accent.

Turning to your error:
1. Try this troubleshooter:


2.
a. Create a new user for test purposes.
b. Log in as that user.
c. Try Dictation/troubleshooter - do you see the same issue?

I used the troubleshooter that you suggested under sound and it showed that my microphone was turned off in the privacy settings. I turned it on and now it is working! As a result, this is my very first post ever written by using voice dictation. One more question: there is a statement about making voice recognition better in the section I was referring to and gives the option of turning off permission if I didn't want to contribute voice clips. Does this mean that Google or Microsoft collects my dictations?

dalchina said:

Inasmuch as recognition algorithms - along with much of user experience on PCs- is collected and analysed by MS in order to
- see how the product is used
- identify problems
- improve or change the product

See:


After that it depends on your view.

If you believe that MS is simply a commercial law-abiding company keen to make loads of megabucks, then you'll be content.

If, however, you are a paranoid, conspiracy-believing fearful and suspicious sort of person, you'll prefer to use your PC in a Faraday cage, wearing a tin hat with your PC disconnected from the internet.

That way you don't have to bother about applying tweaks to disable telemetry, which is used to provide that kind of anonymous monitoring, and which risk having an adverse effect on your PC.

It's your choice- basaed on your belief and understanding.

Thank you!