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RANDOM TEXT APPEARS ON SCREEN

On many new computers with Windows XP installed, users have been surpised to see some very strange things happening, which seem to indicate that their computer has been taken over by a ghost. When they are on the internet and typing in a URL in the Address Bar or filling in a form on the web, a phantom typist might seem to be entering random characters. Or this random text might appear in Microsoft Office documents. Perhaps the mouse will appear to move around to respond to unknown commands to the computer, such as opening a folder or starting a program. All this COULD be explained by the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315765
PRB: Random Characters Appear in Office XP Documents or the Internet Explorer Address Bar After You Install Speech Recognition

The problem comes about because a speech recognition tool has been installed on the computer (perhaps as part of Microsoft Office XP) and the tool is "listening" to your voice through the computer's microphone.
Even if your microphone is turned off, the tool may be on, and it could respond to any sort of sound that travels through your sound card, such as background music.

In order to get around this problem you should either turn off speech recognition (at least temporarily, until you want to use it again), or you should click the Microphone button on the Language bar so that neither Dictation nor Voice Command is Displayed.

Below is a Microsoft Knowledge Base article on installing and configuring Speech Recognition in Windows XP:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306537
HOW TO: Install and Configure Speech Recognition in Windows XP