Windows Trick: How To Make Your Computer To Speak Out Time At Every Hour

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Here is an interesting trick that makes your computer to speak out the time automatically at every hour, like making your own Big Ben Clock on your Windows.

First – the script

Create a file with the following lines codes:

Dim speaks, speech
 speaks = "It is " & hour(time) & " O'clock"
 Set speech = CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
 speech.Speak speaks

And save as .VBS file. For example, time.vbs. Right, I’ve made it easy for you that you can just right-click the link and choose Save As… to download it from this website.

You can double-click the file to test out how it sounds.

Second – schedule the task

Let’s schedule it to run every hour.

1. Open the Task Scheduler, you can press WIN + R, type in taskschd.msc, and hit Enter to start.

Win+R Taskschd to start Task Scheduler - Windows Trick: How To Make Your Computer To Speak Out Time At Every Hour

2. In Task Scheduler, click Create Task under Action.

3. Give a name under the General tab, such as Time.

4. Add a trigger to run the task repeatedly very hour. Like below:

Task Scheduler Trigger repeat hourly - Windows Trick: How To Make Your Computer To Speak Out Time At Every Hour

5. Add an action under Actions tab, like below:

Task Manager Add an action - Windows Trick: How To Make Your Computer To Speak Out Time At Every Hour

6. That’s it. Click Ok to close it.

Congratulations. You’ve successfully turned your computer into a famous Big Ben Clock with a nice male voice speaking out time at every hour.

/credit goes to my MVP fellow Michael Martin/

/update on Oct 28, 2013/

If you are interested in how to run a script at login or logoff, check out this post that outlines the setup how to make this time.vbs to run during a logoff process.

16 COMMENTS

  1. Hi, I tried this PC trick on my Windows 7 x64-bit and it worked flawlessly but when I tried it on another PC running Windows 8, it keeps on asking what application should Windows 8 use to open the .vbs file.

    If I double click the vbs file in windows 8, a male voice speaks the message but after putting it on the taskschd.msc Windows 8 opens a pop-up that asks which application should it use to open the file.

    What application should I choose? I tried using Narrator but it won’t open the vbs file.

    Can you feature a detailed (with screenshots) on how to make Windows 8 and Windows XP Talk?

    One more thing, How can I make Windows XP, 7 & 8 speak a message before it shuts down? I already made a vbs file that speaks a message after Windows 7 opens up/logon using your method but I’d like to make my PC speak a Log-off message before it shuts down.

    How do it do that? Your PC talk trick really rocks! I hope you can help me make Windows XP, 7 & 8 speak before logging out/shutting down.

    Thanks a zillion!!!

  2. I have a problem
    Whenever it’s time to speak it doesn’t.
    It just open a windows that says “How do you want to open this file” and it gives the option to choose between several apps
    and it also happens when I click on the .VBS file
    But when I right click the .VBS file and choose “”open with command prompt” it works just fine and says the time

  3. (sorry if this double posts – the NOW site lards up comments page with way way too many cookies)

    KENT, thanks so much for starting this thread. Your script worked the first time on Win7Pro-64-bit.
    Sadly, as with many scripts/syntax, the devil’s in the details and inevitably, many of us hope things can be customized.

    I would love the opportunity to select a pleasant, SLOW, soft-spoken female voice, but the simple script offers no variables necessary to get the PC to utter anything but a rushed/garbly chipmunk voice.

    Fortunately, I recalled a workaround we used long ago with an old vox program maybe others would like to try. Tweak speed by adding spaces and/or “period” between each word in the vbs script to force slight pauses. EX:
    Dim speaks, speech
    speaks = “Knock. Knock. Sorry to interrupt your train of thought. It is now. ” & hour(time) & ” O’clock”
    Set speech = CreateObject(“sapi.spvoice”)
    speech.Speak speaks
    (notice that I added 2 or more spaces between various but not all words.)

    Kudos for providing a working proof of concept I was able to modify. Your step by step from within taskschd.msc was most appreciated!

  4. You said “a nice male voice.” I take it that means that the voice the script uses is imbedded in the script. How would I tell it to use my Windows text-to-speech voice, either the default or the voice I have chosen?

  5. Hi, my pc always speaks out the time 30mins after the time it should. Is there a way I can remove this task? Thank you :)))))))

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