Speech software has been a hot topic in the computer industry for as long as there have been computers. Computer speech has been around in one form or another for over 30 years, but early speech software could only run on very big and expensive computer hardware. Thanks to Microsoft, the size of your computer is no longer a major limitation to computer speech. Just like with so many other computer technologies, it took Microsoft to make speech software easy to program, and even easier for PC users to use speech to control their Windows software applications. With Windows Visual Basic ActiveX Voice Control Automation Services, Speech API (SAPI) and Speech Suite Software Development Kit (SDK), complex computer speech synthesis, and even speech recognition, has become more accessible to all programmers for use in their multi-media business, education and recreational applications. This book offers the reader a detailed exploration of Windows Speech Automation Services via Visual Basic ActiveX Voice Controls available in MS Speech API Versions 4.0 to 5.1, as well as third-party SAPI vendor SDKs such as IBM ViaVoice and Dragon NatSpeak. It provides a thorough introduction to Windows Speech Recognition Programming for beginning as well as advanced programmers.