windows 8 speech recognition

I’ve been a big fan of Windows Speech Recognition and it definitely adds a new dimension to Windows 8 with or without touch.  The Consumer Preview is out and I decided to give speech recognition a spin.  You can say “Start” to display the Windows 8 start screen, “Switch To <appname>” for running apps, “Close <appname>” to close something and even dictate in a modern or desktop app.

“Start Photos”

“Switch to Mail”

You can also interact with desktop apps just like on Windows 7.  If you have the Consumer Preview of Windows 8, just search for Speech Recognition, set it up and take the tutorial if you’ve never used it before.  There isn’t anything in the tutorial Windows 8 specific yet, but you’ll get the idea.