ArsTechnica takes a look at Windows 7's built-in speech recognition

Microsoft has pumped out voice recognition software for years, but the company has a curious aversion to publicizing the fact. With Windows 7, Microsoft's speech recognition has become a decent productivity tool and one that the company should be proud to proclaim as an OS feature. For the casual speech recognition user, nothing beats free especially when one considers the $100+ price points for third-party software.

But is it powerful enough for serious users? One long-running criticism of Microsoft's bundled Windows software is that is strives only to be "good enough" without ever achieving excellence. Ars Technica's Editor-in-chief Ken Fisher and I put Win 7's built in recognition engine to the test for a couple of months to find out how well it serves the needs of the hardcore word jockey. We'll spare you the suspense: serious users will want to look elsewhere, but this is a great way to show any colleague with a Win 7 machine that speech recognition is real, it's here, and it works.

  Feature: Win 7's built-in speech recognition: a review