Solved [SOLVED] Voice Access toggle won't stay on & Win+H broken

— Fix is language pack reinstall + remove K-Lite TrayMenu from startup

Posting this as a solved thread so others can find it via search.


Symptoms:

• Voice Access toggle in Settings → Accessibility → Speech would not stay ON or turn on Voice Access
• Voice Access taskbar icon was missing and when manually restored did nothing when clicked
• Win+H voice typing showed error: "No more than [blank] may be hidden simultaneously"
• Voice Access would only open intermittently after multiple attempts ran as administrator
• DISM, SFC, and in-place upgrade repair all had no effect
• Reinstall Win 11 from ISO (keep files and settings inaffective

Root Cause 1 — Corrupted English Language/Speech Pack

The Windows speech and accessibility subsystem depends on properly registered language packs. When corrupted, Voice Access and Win+H silently fail.

Fix:

1. Settings → Time & Language → Language & Region
2. Add any second English variant (e.g., English UK)
3. Remove English (United States)
4. Reboot
5. Re-add English (United States), verify Speech pack is installed
6. Reboot

Root Cause 2 — K-Lite Codec Pack TrayMenu.exe conflicting with Win+H

K-Lite installs a 2014 tray app that intercepts Win+H before Windows voice typing receives it.


Fix: Open PowerShell as Administrator and run this one line:

Remove-Item "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\CodecPackTrayMenu.lnk" -Force
Stop-Process -Name TrayMenu -Force

is does NOT break K-Lite — codecs continue working normally.

After reboot everything works correctly.

If you are missing the Voice Access taskbar icon. You need to open Windows Explorer.
Browse to Windows\System3\
Locate. voiceaccess.exe.
Right click it.
Select More options.
Select Pin to taskbar.
Windows is a strange beast, so you might need to reboot after this.

Good luck and happy trails.

---

That should do it!

That one line got split into two lines. If trying to fix the Win+H issue then It should be:
Remove-Item "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\CodecPackTrayMenu.lnk" -Force Stop-Process -Name TrayMenu -Force

RandyWFL said:

"C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\CodecPackTrayMenu.lnk" -Force Stop-Process -Name TrayMenu -Force

Click to expand...

You forgot the semi-colon. Or start a new line, it isn't 1 line, it's two.

Shouldn't it be:


or

RandyWFL said:

Browse to Windows\System3\

Click to expand...

Nope. C:\Windows\System32\


.

I stand corrected. It is indeed two separate lines:
Line 1:
Remove-Item "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\CodecPackTrayMenu.lnk" -Force
Line 2:
Stop-Process -Name TrayMenu -Force

Thanks for setting me straight!
After days and many hours battling this problem I felt compelled to share the solution and really wanted to get it get every step perfect for perfect solution to others. It all stared because my Voice Access icon went missing and I have no idea why or how. When I double clicked the executable nothing happened. The steps outlined above fixed all that. Hopefully others doing web search for this problem will find this page.