Install Speakybara on Windows
About two minutes, and you end up with a blue icon in the system tray and one hotkey that does the work.
Speakybara is a free Windows app that turns any part of your screen into text you can copy or listen to. There is no account, no email address, no trial and no card, so installing is genuinely just downloading and running it.
It needs Windows 10 (build 19041) or newer, Windows 11 recommended. It uses about 55 MB of memory and 0 MB of video memory, so no graphics card is involved. Disk space: 120 MB (plus ~60 MB per optional local voice).
Installing, step by step
Step 1
Download the app
The download page has one button, the version number and the file size. There is nothing to choose between: Free and Managed are the same app, and Managed is only a key you paste later.
Step 2
Unzip, run it and pass SmartScreen
Right-click the zip and choose Extract All, then double-click Speakybara.exe in the folder; starting it from inside the zip does not work. Windows shows a blue SmartScreen dialog for apps it has not seen often yet. Choose More info, then Run anyway.
This is Windows being careful about how many times it has seen a file, not a virus warning. If your workplace blocks unknown installers outright, ask whoever manages the PC.
Step 3
Find the tray icon
Speakybara opens its window and puts a blue icon in the system tray at the bottom right. Closing the window keeps the app running in the tray: double-click the icon to open it again, right-click for the menu. Windows 11 puts new icons in the overflow menu behind the ^ arrow first, so drag the blue icon from there onto the taskbar to keep it in sight.
If the icon disappears, the app was closed or crashed. It checks every 5 seconds whether its icon is still there and puts it back.
Open SpeakybaraCapture and read aloud(ctrl+alt+s)Capture and copy text(ctrl+alt+e)Capture and ask AI(ctrl+alt+u)Read clipboard(ctrl+alt+c)Repeat last(ctrl+alt+r)Pause / resume(ctrl+alt+p)Stop(ctrl+alt+x)Reader▸Unload voice from memoryQuitRight-click the tray icon: open Speakybara, capture and read aloud, copy or ask AI, read the clipboard, and the reader mode. Screens come from the app itself.
Step 4
Take your first shot
Press Ctrl+Alt+S and drag a frame over any text: a scanned PDF, an image in an email, an error dialog you cannot select. The image is recognised on your PC by the text recognition built into Windows, in 50-150 ms, and then discarded. The sentences appear in the Speakybara window and are read aloud.
Press Ctrl+Alt+E instead and the same text lands on your clipboard without being read.
Step 5
Decide whether it starts with Windows
In Settings, under General, there is a switch Start with Windows. It only puts a shortcut in your Startup folder, so deleting that shortcut does exactly the same as switching it off.
General: start with Windows, the sound when capturing, the clipboard, history and the app language.
Worth knowing
- The read-along window remembers where you put it and how big you made it. Drag the top bar to move it, the corner at the bottom right to resize it.
- Reading speed runs from 0.8x to 1.75x, in settings under Stem (voice).
- In Task Manager it shows up as Speakybara.exe, so searching for "speak" finds it.
- Everything lives in one folder: your settings, the usage counter, the local voices and the cached sentences.
If something goes wrong
No. There is no account, no email address, no trial and no card. The app is free to use, forever. Speakybara Managed is a paid convenience for Google's best voices, and even that is only a licence key you paste into settings.
Another program probably claimed the same combination. Open settings, click the hotkey field, and press a different combination; Speakybara tells you when another program already has it. The hotkeys guide walks through it.
Close it from the tray menu, untick "start when Windows starts" (or delete the shortcut in your Startup folder) and delete the Speakybara folder. Settings, the usage counter, the local voices and the cached sentences are all inside that folder, so they go with it.