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Three settings decide most of what you notice every day: the hotkey that starts a mode, the microphone SpeechKit listens to, and the language you speak. All three are in Settings.

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Change a hotkey

The defaults are Ctrl+Win for Dictation, Win+Alt for Assist and Ctrl+Shift for the Voice Agent.
1

Open the mode

In Settings, open Transcribe Mode, Assist Mode or Voice Agent Mode. The hotkey is on the Controls tab.
2

Pick a base combination

Choose one of the presets: Win+Alt, Ctrl+Win or Ctrl+Shift. You can add one more key to it: D, J, K, V or Space.
3

Or enter your own

Choose Custom…, type a combination and select Apply. A custom combo needs at least one modifier plus a key or mouse side button. Alt+Space is reserved by Windows and cannot be used. Modifier-only combos are allowed only for the three presets above.
4

Choose how it behaves

Hold to talk records while you hold the keys. Toggle on press starts on one press and stops on the next.
Each mode needs its own combination. SpeechKit shows a conflict message if two modes overlap. Reset restores the default.

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Choose a microphone

  1. Open Settings > Audio & Speech and go to Input.
  2. Under Audio Input, choose your microphone from the list.
  3. Test with Dictation in a plain text field.
You can also switch the microphone from the quick buttons when you hover over the overlay. In Settings > Display & Output you can choose which quick buttons appear. The Source choice offers Microphone and System audio. Mic + system is shown but not selectable yet. System audio is mainly used for Meeting.

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Choose a language

There are two different languages. The language you speak. Open Settings > Audio & Speech and go to Speech. Under Spoken language, pick a language, Auto / provider detect or Multilingual (multi). The list includes German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Finnish, Czech, Ukrainian, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. If you switch on Detect language, the provider detects the language itself. Which languages work depends on the speech model or provider you use. You can also cycle the speech language from the overlay with Change language, if you added that quick button. The language of the app. Open Settings > App and use Language. The default is System language. The app is available in English, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Hindi and Arabic.

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If something goes wrong

  • The hotkey does nothing. Check that the mode is switched on in Overview and that the combination does not conflict with another mode.
  • SpeechKit hears the wrong microphone. Choose the right one under Audio Input.
  • Words come out in the wrong language. Set Spoken language to your language instead of auto detection.
  • More help: Fix common problems.