Okay, I'm using the System.Speech.Recognition.SpeechRecognizer engine to do voice recognition, and it's working pretty well. However, there IS something I'd like to do but don't know how.

The SpeechRecognizer class uses the Windows-provided voice recognition system, which pops up and indicates whether or not it's listening and what it hears... that's outside your program.

This is a picture of what I'm talking about:


I would like to know if there is a way to:

  1. Programmatically tell the windows voice recognition to listen and stop listening, instead of forcing the user to do it manually.
  2. Programmatically hide the voice reco window in the picture above... why clutter the screen?


Thanks in advance for any helpful replies.