diff --git a/setup/extensions.json b/setup/extensions.json
index 7fc30f2683..c07af3580d 100644
--- a/setup/extensions.json
+++ b/setup/extensions.json
@@ -184,6 +184,14 @@
         "libraries": "SAPI Ole32",
         "cflags": "/X"
     },
+    {
+        "name": "winspeech",
+        "only": "windows",
+        "headers": "calibre/utils/cpp_binding.h calibre/utils/windows/common.h",
+        "sources": "calibre/utils/windows/winspeech.cpp",
+        "libraries": "shlwapi runtimeobject",
+        "cflags": "/X"
+    },
     {
         "name": "wpd",
         "only": "windows",
diff --git a/setup/installers.py b/setup/installers.py
index efc433b5d5..ba64955633 100644
--- a/setup/installers.py
+++ b/setup/installers.py
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ class ExtDev(Command):
         try:
             path = path.format(ext)
             src = os.path.join(ext_dir, os.path.basename(path))
-            subprocess.check_call(['ssh', '-S', control_path, host, 'chmod', '+w', f'"{path}"'])
+            subprocess.check_call(['ssh', '-S', control_path, host, 'chmod', '+wx', f'"{path}"'])
             with open(src, 'rb') as f:
                 p = subprocess.Popen(['ssh', '-S', control_path, host, f'cat - > "{path}"'], stdin=subprocess.PIPE)
                 p.communicate(f.read())
diff --git a/src/calibre/constants.py b/src/calibre/constants.py
index 3f82bb6d91..9691910808 100644
--- a/src/calibre/constants.py
+++ b/src/calibre/constants.py
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ class ExtensionsImporter:
             'uchardet',
         )
         if iswindows:
-            extra = ('winutil', 'wpd', 'winfonts', 'winsapi')
+            extra = ('winutil', 'wpd', 'winfonts', 'winsapi', 'winspeech')
         elif ismacos:
             extra = ('usbobserver', 'cocoa', 'libusb', 'libmtp')
         elif isfreebsd or ishaiku or islinux:
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/windows/winspeech.cpp b/src/calibre/utils/windows/winspeech.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6af9621e26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/windows/winspeech.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+/*
+ * winspeech.cpp
+ * Copyright (C) 2023 Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>
+ *
+ * Distributed under terms of the GPL3 license.
+ */
+
+#include "common.h"
+
+#define M(name, args) { #name, name, args, ""}
+static PyMethodDef methods[] = {
+    {NULL, NULL, 0, NULL}
+};
+#undef M
+
+
+static int
+exec_module(PyObject *m) {
+    return 0;
+}
+
+static PyModuleDef_Slot slots[] = { {Py_mod_exec, (void*)exec_module}, {0, NULL} };
+
+static struct PyModuleDef module_def = {PyModuleDef_HEAD_INIT};
+
+CALIBRE_MODINIT_FUNC PyInit_winspeech(void) {
+    module_def.m_name     = "winspeech";
+    module_def.m_doc      = "Windows Speech API wrapper";
+    module_def.m_methods  = methods;
+    module_def.m_slots    = slots;
+	return PyModuleDef_Init(&module_def);
+}
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/windows/winspeech.py b/src/calibre/utils/windows/winspeech.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c8d98cefa4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/windows/winspeech.py
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# License: GPLv3 Copyright: 2023, Kovid Goyal <kovid at kovidgoyal.net>
+
+
+import calibre_extensions.winspeech as winspeech
+
+winspeech
+
+
+def develop():
+    pass