[FIX] “Speech Recognition” Shows “Change Recognizer Language” Error in Windows Vista and 7

Recently one of our reader "James" asked us about following problem in an email: Whenever he tries to start "Speech Recognition" in Windows 7, he gets following error message:

Speech Recognition could not start because the language configuration is not supported.
The recognizer language must match the language of the user interface. Please change the recognizer language in the Speech Recognition control panel under Advanced Options.

Its a known problem in Windows Vista and 7. Most of the times it happens when ctfmon.exe is not set to automatically start with Windows.
There are a few things which can be done to fix this error message. We'll cover them one by one:

FIX 1: Add ctfmon.exe to Startup

1. Type regedit in RUN or Start menu Searchbox and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor.
2. Now go to following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
3. In right-side pane, create a new String value with the name ctfmon and set its value to ctfmon.exe

4. Close Registry Editor and restart your system. After reboot, you should not get the error message and Speech Recognition should start without any problem.

FIX 2: Using Speech Recognition Settings

1. Open Control Panel and click on Speech Recognition icon. Now click on "Advanced speech options" link given in left sidebar.
2. It'll open a new window. Make sure the Language is set to the correct locale and "Review documents" option is not checked.

3. Apply the changes and restart your system.

FIX 3: Using Regional Settings

1. Type intl.cpl in RUN or Start menu Searchbox and press Enter. It'll open Regional Settings window.
2. Now go to "Location" tab and change the location to something different and restart your system.

3. Upon reboot set the location to correct one and restart your system again.
4. Now Speech Recognition should work.

FIX 4: Create New Recognition Profile

Posted in: troubleshooting