Windows 8 support

[Jormundgand]

I haven't gotten around to testing Vox with Windows 8, but was curious if any other users have had success and what kind of usability they achieved out of it.

[jitterjames]

Me too! 

I have been waiting for the official release to install it.  I believe Wanilton has tested it and it works normally, but it will be a while before any new windows 8 specific functionality is added.  I am definitely interested in the possibility of some kind of metro OSD connection.

[Wanilton]

Yes voxcommando work fine with windows 8, equal experience with 7, no troubles here.

[Jormundgand]

Thanks for the replies, I installed Windows 8 as a clean install last night and have Vox running off my Kinect fine. One issue I'm running into is loading Metro UI applications from Vox. The applications are stored in a special folder within the program files folder called WindowsApps. I don't seem to be able to launch any of these from Vox. Any ideas?

[jitterjames]

hmmm.  I don't have win 8 yet so I can't try it myself.  Can you tell us how you are trying to call this action?

Please provide the action, and the parameter.   Or send us an image of the command builder window.  Maybe we can spot something.

[jitterjames]

after a quick web search I came across this:

http://www.ghacks.net/2012/07/29/create-desktop-shortcuts-for-windows-metro-apps/

Looks like maybe this is a limitation of windows 8.  I don't know enough about it to suggest a workaround but I imagine someone will come up with something eventually.

[jitterjames]

it is not ideal, but for now you might get around this by using keyboard emulation.

Send the Windows Key, then the name of the app, then Enter and it should execute it.  You may need to insert a short vc.pause before sending Enter.

Try importing the attached group to your command tree (you'll need to edit the app name and add a phrase to trigger the command).  It works in Win 7 to launch wordpad, though you might have problems if running a program in true fullscreen mode.  If you have two apps with the same name it will probably just launch whichever is at the top of the "search" list

[Kalle]

Me too! 

I have been waiting for the official release to install it.  I believe Wanilton has tested it and it works normally, but it will be a while before any new windows 8 specific functionality is added.  I am definitely interested in the possibility of some kind of metro OSD connection.

Hi guys, I've bought a official release "Windows 8 pro".
VoxCommando works as well as with Windows 7, no problems. I have installed it as upgrade over my Win7Ultimate. The system boot is even faster as before.
It looks like the speech engine is the same as in Win7 (microsoft spend it more and other voices, "Anna" is not available any more).
A move from Windows 7 to Windows 8 brings only a little advantage (for me). The biggest advantage is probably the fact, that there are not so many versions available (Windows 8 and Windows 8 PRO) and the price is cheap (the downloaded Pro version cost 30 EURO on the microsoft website). To install different language packages is possible with the pro version (I'm not sure if it is available without the pro).

This is only a short review after  1hour test 

Kalle

[Jormundgand]

I apologize for not replying sooner. The xml launch method you posted works for a standard desktop application and properly switches to the desktop environment, then performing the launch of the specified application; However what I am attempting to do is launch the metro only applications, which are sandboxed within the metro UI. The applications themselves much be launched from the metro UI container.  I understand Microsofts attempts at making applications more secure, but its a hell of a bump in the road. As of now even Dragon Naturally Speaking has no work arounds, that I am aware of, to launching and managing functions for any Metro style apps.

[Jormundgand]

I.E. start microsofts built in speech recognition and command "Start Slacker" it will immediately switch to the metro UI and launch that application. However if I create a launch command with Vox for the Slacker executable that is found in the Program Files folder, it will not launch even with SmartScreen disabled. It isn't just a limitation of Vox though, browsing to the executable with Explorer and launching it produces this message "This application can only run in the context of an app container".

[jitterjames]

I have done a bit of experimenting with Windows 8 and I have come up with a keyboard emulation solution that seems to work reasonably well for launching apps.

press windows key and release
press Windows - Q
wait for a short period
type app name
press enter

I've attached a sample group that you can import to test.  For better control you will probably want to use a payloadXML insteadof payloadList

edit:  if you want you can copy and paste this xml code directly into your VC tree (instead of downloading the xml file).  I have added netflix to the payload list

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<command id="444" name="launch app {1)" enabled="true" alwaysOn="False" confirm="False" requiredConfidence="0" loop="False" loopDelay="0" loopMax="0" description="">
 <action>
   <cmdType>InputKeys.Send</cmdType>
   <cmdString>{LWIN}</cmdString>
   <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
 </action>
 <action>
   <cmdType>InputKeys.Send</cmdType>
   <cmdString>{LWIN}({Q})</cmdString>
   <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
 </action>
 <action>
   <cmdType>VC.Pause</cmdType>
   <cmdString>300</cmdString>
   <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
 </action>
 <action>
   <cmdType>InputKeys.TextEntry</cmdType>
   <cmdString>{1}</cmdString>
   <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
 </action>
 <action>
   <cmdType>InputKeys.Send</cmdType>
   <cmdString>{enter}</cmdString>
   <cmdRepeat>1</cmdRepeat>
 </action>
 <phrase>launch app</phrase>
 <payloadList>weather, maps, games, music, calendar, netflix</payloadList>
</command>

[Jormundgand]

Thanks, I'll give it a shot here in a sec. I've found that metro apps can be launched from command line using the start command.

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start "" "bingnews:"

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start "" "skype:"

Digging through the registry they seem to launch from URL associations or classids (possibly both), some applications such as netflix create these keys when installed so using the command

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start "" "netflix:" has no issue launching the application from the desktop environment.

The initial set of quotes can be filled in with whatever the user desires as it will simply be the title for the windows opening.

[jitterjames]

Thanks, I'll give it a shot here in a sec. I've found that metro apps can be launched from command line using the start command.

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start "" "bingnews:"

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start "" "skype:"

Digging through the registry they seem to launch from URL associations or classids (possibly both), some applications such as netflix create these keys when installed so using the command

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start "" "netflix:" has no issue launching the application from the desktop environment.

The initial set of quotes can be filled in with whatever the user desires as it will simply be the title for the windows opening.

That sounds promising.  I guess you have not had any luck using this format with VC's launch actions?

[Jormundgand]

That sounds promising.  I guess you have not had any luck using this format with VC's launch actions?

I'll be giving it a go here in a moment along with seeing how your method works, tbh I'm still very new to the command structure of Vox but it seems very simplistic in nature. I'm also trying to find a way to create the registry keys necessary to launch applications that do not by default create them. My test subject on this has been Slacker obviously.

[jitterjames]

This should work for anything that has this kind of "URL:" in the registry

- create a batch file in your VC folder and call it start.bat (see attached)

the bat file should just contain one line:

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start "" "%1"

- In your action do this:

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Launch.Hidden         start.bat      bingnews: