None of these voices match the Cortana text-to-speech voice which can be found on Windows Phone 8.1, Windows 10, and Windows 10 Mobile.
These are the same voices found on Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 10 Mobile.Īlso with these voices language packs are also available for a variety of voices similar to that of Windows 8 and 8.1. In Windows 10, Microsoft Hazel was removed from the US English Language Pack and the Microsoft voices for Mobile (Phone/tablet) are available (Microsoft Mark and Microsoft Zira). Unlike Windows 7 or Vista, one cannot use any third-party program for Microsoft Anna because there is no Anna Voice API for download (especially since there was never a SAPI 4 version of Microsoft Anna). Other voices are available for specific language versions of either Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. The server versions of these voices are available via the above-mentioned Speech Platform for operating systems earlier than Windows 8. In Windows 8, there are three new client (desktop) voices - Microsoft David (US male), Hazel (UK female) and Zira (US female) which are intended to sound more natural than Microsoft Anna. Speech Platform voices, unlike SAPI 5 voices, are female-only no male voices were ever released. These voices are available in 26 languages and can be installed on Windows client and server operating systems. In 2010, Microsoft released the newer Speech Platform compatible voices for Speech Recognition and Text-to-Speech for use with client and server applications. It can also be obtained in non-Chinese versions of Windows 7 or Vista by installing the Chinese language pack.
There are no male voices shipping with Windows Vista and Windows 7, and neither Microsoft Mike or Mary will work on Windows 7.Ī female voice called Microsoft Lili that replaces the earlier male SAPI 5 voice "Microsoft Simplified Chinese" is available in Chinese versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 and later install the Microsoft Anna voice on Windows XP systems for the voice-prompt direction feature. It is a SAPI 5-only female voice and is designed to sound more natural than Microsoft Sam. In addition, the Lernout & Hauspie voices Michael and Michelle will also work on Windows Vista and later if the SAPI 4 versions of the voices in British English is downloaded and used with a third-party program like Speakonia (Conversely, said voices are also compatible with XP and prior as well).īeginning with Windows Vista and Windows 7, Microsoft Anna is the default English voice. The SAPI 4 versions of Microsoft Sam, Microsoft Mike and Microsoft Mary can be used on Windows XP, Vista and later with a third-party program (like Speakonia and TTSReader) installed on the machine that supports these operating systems however, as expected, the speech patterns differed from the SAPI 5 versions of these voices. SAPI 4 redistributable versions were downloadable for Windows 9x, however they are no longer offered from the Microsoft website. While SAPI 5 versions of Microsoft Mike and Microsoft Mary are downloadable only as a Merge Module, the installable versions may be installed on end users' systems by speech applications such as Microsoft Reader. SAPI 4 voices are only available on Windows 2000 and later Windows NT-based operating systems, but are also available as a download on Windows 9x operating systems as well. There are both SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 versions of these text-to-speech voices. Michael and Michelle are also optional male and female voices licensed by Microsoft from Lernout & Hauspie, and are available through Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft Office 2003 or Microsoft Reader. Microsoft Mike and Microsoft Mary are optional male and female voices respectively, available for download from the Microsoft website. It is used by Narrator, the screen reader program built into the operating system. Microsoft Sam is the default text-to-speech male voice in Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The first part uses a variation of the " The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" panagram, while the second part showcases the "soi" glitch associated with Sam. Voices Windows 2000 and Windows XP A speech sample of Microsoft Sam. for both Windows client and server platforms, and mobile voices are often shipped with more recent versions. Client voices are shipped with Windows operating systems server voices are available for download for use with server applications such as Speech Server, Lync etc. There are client, server, and mobile versions of Microsoft text-to-speech voices. The Microsoft text-to-speech voices are speech synthesizers provided for use with applications that use the Microsoft Speech API (SAPI) or the Microsoft Speech Server Platform. For the account database, see Security Account Manager.