Make Your Computer Talk With Powershell!

Microsoft Windows has enjoyed use as the most popular operating system for several years now and has provided us will lots of tools and utilities to work with an maintain it.  One of those is Powershell.  Powershell is like a command prompt on steroids!  First where can you get it?  You can get it for free from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34595

Once it is installed you can use it for all kinds of fun.

Step 1: Step 1 Open the Command Prompt

Once installed you can open the Powershell Command Prompt by typing powershell in the search box and then running Windows Powershell the command window will look like the window below.

Step 2: Step 2 - Get It Talking

Ok now in the command window type the following:

                Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Speech 

And press enter

This gets it ready to talk and now we will call on the synthesizer to give it something to say:
Create a variable to pass an argument to we don't have to type out a long command everytime!

               $synth = New-Object -TypeName System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer

now we use our variable to finally hear something:

               $synth.Speak('What is your bidding my master?')

How is that for creepy?

I played around with it for a while and there is not too much that it cannot say and it is a fun way to pass some time

Comments

[cld0000]

Nice. Can you run this PowerShell script externally? (e.g. a external batch script, or a executable)?

[EricA9]

Yes, you can save powershell script so they work similar to batch files. instead of .bat, they use a .ps1 extension. I use them for automating common tasks at work, so when I need to do that complex set of step again, I just run the script. You can also use the task scheduler, or even the powershell scheduler to run them at predetermined times.

[kaseynmary]

Sorry it took me so long to get back to you I have been away from the site for a while. But to answer your question I am not sure. I never tried it. My days of messing with people through their computer are mostly behind me...mostly.

[amandaghassaei]

sounds cool, do you have any examples of what it sounds like?