Thread: Windows Vista

Originally Posted by mercury7

Hi turkey,
I'm not a beta tester, so you might already have this, but is it possible to say key presses. For example, "Ctrl+Alt+Del" - or, I guess I could I just say, "Launch Windows Task Manger" for that , right? However, it would be useful in other apps though, like Photoshop. I could say, "Shift Plus I", and my image would inverse.

What do ya think?

Hey Mercury,

Yep. That's there. You can say "Press Shift I" to get an uppercase "I", or "Press left arrow 7 times", or "Press shift control F7". You can even string keys together, "Press control a control c alt tab control v" (although that'd be quite a mouthful ).

I don't think you can say "Press control alt delete" though for security reasons. In Windows when you actually press the control alt delete, that's called the "Secure Attention Sequence" and that gets handled in a very different way than almost all other keystrokes in windows. You don't want just any appliation to be able to either send those keys, or intercept them, because when you press them, it takes you to the "Secure Desktop" where you can do things like change your password. You wouldn't want an application you installed to be able to capture those keystrokes and dispaly UI that looks very much like the normal Microsoft provided UI for changing your password. Otherwise, they could steal your password. This could be a security vulnerability in the "Spoofing" class.

We all (engineers at Microsoft) learn all about this kind of stuff in mandantory security training sessions that we take at least once per year. It's all part of the Trustworthy Computing initiative at Microsoft over the last 5 years.

Any other wants or needs of Speech in Vista?

Awesome! Good work then. Can't wait to try it out.

Originally Posted by NTurkey

Yes it is. It's built on top of a slightly newer version of SAPI and a substantially better SR engine underneath that.

BTW ... I've heard on the beta 1 newsgroups, that speech isn't working great in the virtualized setup, though. I haven't tried it myself yet. I have a dedicated machine running Vista (although not in my car yet )

I will have to try it out then - I'll be dual-booting my home laptop to try it out in the Car environment.

Should SAPI 5 applications continue to work (but iwth better voice recognition) or is it expected in the future we use a macro system built into the OS?

Originally Posted by stevieg

Should SAPI 5 applications continue to work (but iwth better voice recognition) or is it expected in the future we use a macro system built into the OS?

Existing apps should continue to work fine. If you find that they don't, you should submit a bug as per the Windows Vista Bug reporting link in the OS...

Originally Posted by NTurkey

Ha ha...

Yeah, that and a lot more. In fact, much of what many of the utilities posted here on the board do, will be doable with speech in vista, with a much improved speech engine, and an actual user experience piece as well.

I'm curious what people would like to see in Vista RE: Speech. There's still time to add some extra stuff. All the obvious stuff will already be there: top level UI for controlling the microphone, commanding menus, buttons, and other misc on-screen elements, dictation, an improved dictation correction experience, etc.

What else would people like? For example, would you guys like to see a macro system built into the OS for speech macros? What types of macro support would you like to see built into the OS? What types of things would you like to do from the macro system, if one is inlcuded in the OS? Send keys? Start apps? What else? What are some of the craziest things people have tried to do with NaviVoice or BSR?

I'd love to hear your feedback.

Damn! You're basically taking over NaviVoice and PowerVoice

Good thing that VISTA won't run on old machines... so I'd still have a market

Originally Posted by 0l33l

Damn! You're basically taking over NaviVoice and PowerVoice

Good thing that VISTA won't run on old machines... so I'd still have a market

I'm thinking we're DAMN lucky to have someone from MS speech come on here asking for features we'd like (that obviously are Car PC centric)!

I *really* *really* need over the next few days to get Vista on my laptop and test it out in the car to see what improvements would be useful, given the chance!

Originally Posted by stevieg

I'm thinking we're DAMN lucky to have someone from MS speech come on here asking for features we'd like (that obviously are Car PC centric)!

I *really* *really* need over the next few days to get Vista on my laptop and test it out in the car to see what improvements would be useful, given the chance!

No doubt this is true. It never ceases to amaze me the enormity of knowledge and breadth of discipline this site encompasses, so MS is also lucky to have him tap mp3car users.

Originally Posted by stevieg

I'm thinking we're DAMN lucky to have someone from MS speech come on here asking for features we'd like (that obviously are Car PC centric)!

I *really* *really* need over the next few days to get Vista on my laptop and test it out in the car to see what improvements would be useful, given the chance!

Sounds like a plan.

Except I think my laptops might just struggle PIII 500 is the best I can do at the moment.


Actually I could just get a standard drive and disconnect my laptop drives from the new PC. Damn why do I have to drive to somerset this weekend


Actually I wonder what Scouse is doing this weekend, sounds like a chance for a few drinks.

Sorry I digress

Thanks guys. I'm glad to be hear. I'm a carPC enthusiast myself so it's a good fit. People on the site help me ... both in getting my PC in my car working and helping me understand what features and technologies you'd like to see Microsoft working on in the future.

It's always fun to have a passion that is both professional and a hobby. I'm lucky that way.

Anyway, let me know what you think of Vista if and when you get it on your machines.