When I try to use the speech recognition functions in Word 2002 (or any other program that uses MS Direct Speech Recognition, nothing happens. When I go to Speech in Control Panel, I get the following message: "The requested task cannot be carried out because the necessary engine could not be created. Please select a different engine and / or a different audio device." I am using a Creative SB Audigy 2 with the latest drivers. The engine I am trying to use is Microsoft English ASR Version 5, but this error also occurs with the SAPI Developer Sample Engine. If I click on Ok, I get the following message: "An exception occurred while trying to run "shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Speech\sapi.cpl",Speech"" This problem happens on both of my XP machines, but not on my Me machine (all three of which have Office XP installed).

Jon: a few ideas to try; 1. ensure Telephony service is started. 2. using TweakUI, click on Control Panel , and select Speech Properties in the right panel. 3. create a restore point, then open the registry; click Start, Run. type: regedit drill down to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Control Panel\Extended Properties\305CA226-D286-468e-B848-2B2E8E697B74}2 the sapi.cpl entry is likely the last on the list in the right pane, if the REG_DWORD value= 0x00000004 (4) then exit the registry, otherwise right-click the entry, select Modify, and enter 4 in the Value data field, OK and exit.