How do you hide the Voice Access bar in Windows 11?

Microsoft documents no way to hide the Voice Access bar while Voice Access is running. Microsoft describes the bar as docked on top of your screen once the feature starts ¹, and its FAQ says the bar is fixed at the top of your main screen ². The bar leaves the screen only when Voice Access closes, according to Microsoft's description of turning it off. Say Turn off voice access, or set Voice access to Off under Settings, Accessibility, Speech. If you only want the feature to stop listening and the bar to stay where it is, say Turn off microphone instead.

Microsoft documents no setting that hides the bar

The bar has its own Settings button, and its menu includes an automatic startup option ³. The menu also offers a choice of default microphone and a Manage options list, which covers fluid dictation, automatic punctuation, profanity filtering, languages, wait time and vocabulary. The Help button adds the command list and an interactive guide. None of these options hides the bar or makes it smaller.

We checked Microsoft's getting-started and setup pages for a hide, minimize or collapse control, and found none.

The options that change the bar are these:

Turning Voice Access off is how Microsoft documents removing the bar

Two routes close the feature, and both take the bar off the screen. Microsoft's description of Turn off voice access says it removes the Voice Access bar from the top of the screen and closes the feature ⁴. The spoken command is one of several phrases Microsoft lists for closing the feature, including Stop voice access and Exit voice access ⁵.

If you prefer the Settings route, use these steps:

1. Open Start, then select Settings.
2. Select Accessibility, then select Speech.
3. Set Voice access to Off ⁶.

The third-party guide we checked says the bar disappears when the switch is set to Off, and that Windows stops listening. Microsoft's own pages say the spoken command removes the bar and closes the feature, so the two routes lead to the same place.

Turning off the microphone is not the same as closing the bar

If you want to stop Voice Access from hearing you without closing it, say Turn off microphone. Microsoft lists that as a separate command from the one that closes the feature ⁷. The feature stays open, and by our reading the bar stays where it is too.

Sleep works in a similar way. In sleep state, Voice access ignores everything you say except the command that switches it back to listening ⁸. Microsoft does not say what the bar shows in sleep or with the microphone off. We read its pages as meaning the bar stays, because the microphone states are controlled from the microphone button on the bar. Check this on your own screen, because we could not test it on a live PC.

Keeping the bar from coming back after you close it

If the bar keeps reappearing after you turn Voice Access off, the likely cause is an automatic startup setting. The Settings menu on the bar leads to the Speech page, where Voice Access can be set to launch before or after you sign in ³. Clear both startup checkboxes there, restart the PC, and check whether the bar appears. The guide to turning off Voice Access explains each checkbox, and the question on why Voice Access keeps popping up sets out the steps in order.

Forum tips that we could not confirm

Some community replies suggest minimizing the window that has focus with Windows + Down Arrow, or minimizing every window with Windows + M. We could not confirm that either shortcut hides the bar, so we do not recommend relying on either tip.

Some people also use Windows key + H as a substitute. That shortcut starts voice typing, not Voice Access, and it does not hide the bar. We found no Microsoft shortcut that hides or shows the bar. The question on disabling the Voice Access shortcut covers the shortcuts Microsoft does list.

What to do

1. To remove the bar, say Turn off voice access, or set Voice access to Off under Settings, Accessibility, Speech.
2. To pause listening and keep the feature open, say Turn off microphone. The feature stays open, and we read the bar as staying on screen too.
3. To stop the bar from returning, clear both automatic startup checkboxes, restart the PC, and check the bar.
4. If the Voice access switch is greyed out, or the checkboxes do not change, your PC may be managed. Ask your IT administrator, because we could not see the policies on your device.

Voice Access is a Windows 11 feature, and this answer describes the bar as Microsoft describes it on its Voice Access pages. For what the feature is, see the glossary entry for Voice Access and our overview of dictation on Windows.