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How to Make the Computer Speak in Batch Script (via VBScript)

While batch scripts are text-based, you can make them far more interactive and user-friendly by adding audible feedback. Instead of just printing a message to the screen, the script can speak it aloud. This is perfect for notifying a user that a long task has completed, providing alerts, or for accessibility. Windows Batch has no native, built-in command for speech synthesis.

This guide will explain this limitation and teach you the classic method for making your computer speak by having your batch script dynamically create and run a small VBScript file. We will also cover the more direct and modern approach using a PowerShell one-liner, which is now the recommended method.

The Challenge: Batch Can't Speak​

The cmd.exe interpreter has no commands for interacting with the Windows Speech API (SAPI). To make the computer talk, a batch script must act as a launcher, calling a more powerful scripting engine that can access these features.

The Classic Method: Generating a Temporary VBScript​

This is the most compatible method, working on all versions of Windows from XP onwards. The batch script writes a few lines of VBScript code to a temporary .vbs file, executes it, and then deletes the file. This makes the entire operation self-contained.

The core of the VBScript is a single command that uses the built-in SAPI.SpVoice COM object to speak a string. CreateObject("SAPI.SpVoice").Speak "Your text here"

For any modern Windows system, calling PowerShell is a cleaner and more direct solution. It can access the .NET Framework's powerful speech synthesis engine without creating any temporary files.

powershell -Command "Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Speech; (New-Object System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer).Speak('Your text here')"
  • Add-Type...: This loads the necessary .NET speech library.
  • New-Object...: This creates a new "synthesizer" object.
  • .Speak(...): This method tells the synthesizer to speak the provided text.

Basic Example: A Simple "Hello, World!"​

Let's make the computer say "Hello, World!" using both methods.

Method 1: VBScript​

@ECHO OFF
SET "TextToSpeak=Hello from VBScript"
SET "TempVBSFile=%TEMP%\~speak.vbs"

ECHO --- Making the computer speak using VBScript ---

REM Create the VBScript file dynamically
ECHO Set sapi = CreateObject("SAPI.SpVoice") > "%TempVBSFile%"
ECHO sapi.Speak "%TextToSpeak%" >> "%TempVBSFile%"

REM Execute the VBScript using the command-line script host
cscript //nologo "%TempVBSFile%"

REM Clean up the temporary file
DEL "%TempVBSFile%"

Method 2: PowerShell​

@ECHO OFF
SET "TextToSpeak=Hello from PowerShell"

ECHO --- Making the computer speak using PowerShell ---
powershell -Command "Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Speech; (New-Object System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer).Speak('%TextToSpeak%')"

How the Helper Scripts Work​

  • VBScript: The cscript.exe command executes the .vbs file. The VBScript code uses CreateObject() to ask Windows for an instance of its Speech API voice engine. It then calls the .Speak() method on that object, passing it the string to be synthesized into audio.
  • PowerShell: This method is more direct. It loads the .NET speech assembly, creates a SpeechSynthesizer object, and calls its .Speak() method. The entire operation happens in memory.

Common Pitfalls and How to Solve Them​

Problem: The Text Contains Quotes or Special Characters​

If the string you want to speak contains double quotes, it will break the ECHO ... > file.vbs command and the PowerShell one-liner.

Solution (VBScript): This is very difficult to handle robustly. You would need to replace every " in your string with "" for VBScript to handle it correctly. Solution (PowerShell - Recommended): PowerShell is much better at handling this. By passing the text as a parameter, you can avoid most issues.

powershell -Command "Add-Type -AN System.Speech; (New-Object System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer).Speak('%TextToSpeak%')"

For very complex strings, a more advanced PowerShell script might be needed, but this handles most cases.

Practical Example: An Interactive "Text to Speech" Script​

This script uses the robust PowerShell method to create a simple tool that will say whatever the user types.

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
TITLE Text-to-Speech Utility

ECHO --- Interactive Text to Speech ---
ECHO Type a sentence and press Enter to hear it spoken.
ECHO Type 'exit' to quit.
ECHO.

:Prompt
SET "UserInput="
SET /P "UserInput=> "

IF /I "%UserInput%"=="exit" GOTO :End

REM --- Pass the user's input to PowerShell to be spoken ---
powershell -Command "Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Speech; (New-Object System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer).Speak('%UserInput%')"

GOTO :Prompt

:End
ECHO Goodbye!
ENDLOCAL

Conclusion​

While batch scripting cannot speak on its own, it can easily orchestrate other built-in tools to add speech synthesis to your scripts.

Key takeaways:

  • Pure batch cannot generate speech. You must use a helper script.
  • The VBScript method is the classic approach and is highly compatible with older Windows versions, but it requires creating a temporary file.
  • The PowerShell method is the overwhelmingly recommended best practice. It is cleaner, more direct, avoids temporary files, and is better at handling special characters.

By adding a single PowerShell command to your batch file, you can easily make your scripts more interactive, accessible, and user-friendly.

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