Script Tips
Talking Scripts
Give your scripts the power of speech.
The SAPI (Speech Application Programming Interface) object is a scriptable one, which means you can take advantage of this feature in your scripts. It's built into Windows XP and later systems (including Server 2003) so if your target systems are new enough, you're already set up to make use of it.
Set objVoice = CreateObject("SAPI.SpVoice")
objVoice.Speak "Welcome to the machine"
That is all there is to it. Create a reference to the object and use the "speak" method to instruct the specified text to be spoken. Almost disappointingly, the voice "Microsoft Anna" that ships with Vista sounds very good, and you can't have fun with the expected "computer voice" sound with which you may be familiar.
Windows XP included "Microsoft Sam" and a couple of more voices are available by installing the SAPI SDK (click here to download).
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So when would you use such a thing? Well, like lots of nice things you can do, maybe there is no good excuse to take advantage of it. It's like the good old "Beep" sound from the early days: As soon as administrators discovered you could make the computer beep by simply typing "beep" logon scripts, users the world over started complaining. Well, here we go again -- have fun with this one before the complaints start rolling in.
About the Author
Bob Kelly is president and co-founder of AdminScriptEditor.com, home to an integrated suite of scripting tools and a shared library of scripts and language help. He has authored books on scripting and desktop administration and several white papers. Bob also owns and operates AppDeploy.com, where he writes and produces videos on topics related to software deployment.