how can you change the alert voice (text to speech) default?

You can change the voice chosen in:-
Settings,
Time & language,
Speech,
sub-heading - Voices,
dropdown list - Choose a voice.

If necessary, you can also add voices using a combination of the items under the sub-headings Manage voices & Installed voice packages.
- There is a reference list of language voices at Appendix A Supported languages and voices in Narrator - Windows Help

Denis

Hi Rob,

Scroll down to 'Manage voices and click Add voices.




Type English or other into 'Select a language below...'.




And choose from the English options listed. I'm using winver 2004 in Canada, these are the options that are displayed on my PC.

robls99 said:

Do you know of another source if I want to try others?

Rob,

No, I don't.

I once substituted UK voices for US ones [I thought I was adding them].

But I should not have written this bit because, even though I eventually succeeded in changing US to UK voices, I was obviously very confused throughout & my notes made no sense at all afterwards.

Try3 said:

… you can also add voices using a combination of the items under the sub-headings Manage voices & Installed voice packages.
- There is a reference list of language voices at Appendix A Supported languages and voices in Narrator - Windows Help

- When I tried adding other voices [Irish, Aussie, Indian, Canadian], I got lots of The voice package couldn't be installed. Select it to try again.
- I think I eventually had to add the English UK language in Settings, Time & language, Language - Preferred languages, Add a language. And then I had to select the new entry, click on Options and do something else there.
- I have always thought that my language problems were a self-inflicted injury first caused by having updated with a US version on top of an English installation. So my speech problems might well not be typical.

Denis

No ideas at all, I'm afraid, but I'd bet it requires an installation rather than a mere copy.

The reason I think that is partially because interrogating voice properties does not reveal any specific voice files:-

Use Notepad to paste all this into a file that you then call List installed voices.ps1 then right-click on it & select Run with Powershell

Code:

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.speech
$speak = New-Object System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer
$speak.GetInstalledVoices().VoiceInfo
pause

My results [which reflect my accidental language mix] are

Code:

Gender                : Female
Age                   : Adult
Name                  : Microsoft Zira Desktop
Culture               : en-US
Id                    : TTS_MS_EN-US_ZIRA_11.0
Description           : Microsoft Zira Desktop - English (United States)
SupportedAudioFormats : {}
AdditionalInfo        : {[Age, Adult], [Gender, Female], [Language, 409], [Name, Microsoft Zira Desktop]...}

Gender                : Female
Age                   : Adult
Name                  : Microsoft Hazel Desktop
Culture               : en-GB
Id                    : TTS_MS_EN-GB_HAZEL_11.0
Description           : Microsoft Hazel Desktop - English (Great Britain)
SupportedAudioFormats : {}
AdditionalInfo        : {[Age, Adult], [Gender, Female], [Language, 809], [Name, Microsoft Hazel Desktop]…}

despite which the voices that work are: Microsoft George, Microsoft Susan, Microsoft Hazel

Denis

Rob,

I'm glad you have found a solution.

Obviously, I cannot use that solution because we burst into tears every time we think of America.
- During our Brexit debate torments, all the opponents had to do was refer to Brexit as meaning that we would be forced to stuff US chlorinated chicken down our throats.
- Now we see on the news that the US CDC has had to advise Americans not to kiss chickens. Who needed that advice? Cleetus from The Simpsons?

All the best,
Denis