To perform the following functions you have to be at the desktop

If you have started voice recognition multiple times it may appear in the common use applications in the start menu, In which case Whilst holding down the CTRL key drag the speech recognition icon on to the desktop.

Otherwise you can drag it from all programs using the following method:

Click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, Ease of Access. Whilst holding down the CTRL key, drag “Windows Speech Recognition” onto the desktop

Yet another method is shown below

On a blank part of the desktop right click and select, New, shortcut.

On the shortcut Tab, in the target box, enter the following:

%windir%\Speech\Common\sapisvr.exe -SpeechUX

In the and starts in box enter this:

%windir%\system32\Speech\SpeechUX

Click on OK to save, the shortcut