secondvoice/WINDOWS_QUICK_START.md

🚀 Windows Quick Start Guide

Get SecondVoice running on Windows in 5 steps!

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💡 Choose Your Compiler

You have two options:

Option	Size	Install Time	Recommended For
MinGW (GCC)	~500 MB	5-10 min	⭐ Most users
Visual Studio (MSVC)	10-20 GB	30-60 min	Professional devs

Recommendation: Use MinGW - it's 20x smaller and works perfectly!

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⚡ Option A: MinGW (Recommended - 500MB)

One-Click Setup

Open PowerShell as Administrator:

cd "E:\Users\Alexis Trouvé\Documents\Projets\secondvoice"
.\setup_mingw.bat

This installs everything automatically. Then:

# Restart PowerShell
copy .env.example .env
notepad .env  # Add API keys
.\build_mingw.bat --release
cd build\mingw-release
.\SecondVoice.exe

Done! See WINDOWS_MINGW.md for details.

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⚡ Option B: Visual Studio (10-20GB)

1. Install Visual Studio 2022 Community (Free)

👉 https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/

During installation, select:

• ✅ Desktop development with C++

2. Install vcpkg

Open PowerShell as Administrator:

cd C:\
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git
cd vcpkg
.\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat
setx VCPKG_ROOT "C:\vcpkg"

⚠️ Important: Close and reopen PowerShell after setting VCPKG_ROOT

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🔧 Build SecondVoice (1-2 minutes)

1. Clone the project

cd "E:\Users\Alexis Trouvé\Documents\Projets"
git clone <repository-url> secondvoice
cd secondvoice

2. Create your API keys file

copy .env.example .env
notepad .env

Add your keys:

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

3. Build!

build.bat --release

First build takes 5-10 minutes (downloads dependencies).

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▶️ Run SecondVoice

cd build\windows-release\Release
SecondVoice.exe

That's it! 🎉

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🎯 What to Expect

1. ImGui window opens with "SecondVoice - Live Translation"
2. Recording starts automatically
3. Speak Chinese into your microphone
4. Transcription appears in blue (中文)
5. Translation appears in green (FR)
6. Click "STOP RECORDING" when done
7. Audio saved to recordings/ folder

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⚙️ Quick Configuration

Edit config.json to customize:

{
  "audio": {
    "chunk_duration_seconds": 10  // Lower = faster updates (5-30s)
  },
  "whisper": {
    "model": "gpt-4o-mini-transcribe",  // Or "gpt-4o-transcribe" for best quality
    "prompt": "Add your context here (names, topics, etc.)"
  }
}

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🐛 Troubleshooting

"VCPKG_ROOT not set"

setx VCPKG_ROOT "C:\vcpkg"
# Restart PowerShell

"cl.exe not found"

Open Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt instead of regular PowerShell.

"No audio device found"

1. Check microphone is connected
2. Go to Settings → Sound → Input
3. Test your microphone

Build fails with dependency errors

build.bat --clean --release

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📊 Costs

• Whisper API: $0.006/minute (~$0.36/hour)
• Claude API: ~$0.04/hour
• Total: ~$0.40/hour of recording

Very affordable for the value! 💰

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📚 Need More Help?

• Full Windows guide: docs/build_windows.md
• General docs: docs/next_steps.md
• Whisper upgrade: docs/whisper_upgrade.md

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🎉 You're Ready!

Test it with:

1. Sample Chinese audio (YouTube, recordings)
2. Real conversation with Chinese speakers
3. Important meeting where you need translation

Good luck with your first meeting! 🚀

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Quick start version - Last updated: 20 novembre 2025