Windows 7 64 Bit & Windows Server 2008 R2 TTS Voice Selection: Problems & Solutions

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  There are multiple problems with setting a default TTS Voice in
  Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 64 bit edition.
  
  The Control Panel TTS Voice option lists only properly registered
  64 bit Voices. Microsoft's Anna is the only 64 bit Voice that is
  supplied with the operating systems. Loquendo's Kate, which is
  probably the highest quality TTS Voice that is currently available,
  has both 32 and 64 bit versions. Kate is difficult to obtain in small
  quantities and is very expensive. The next best alternative is
  believed to be the Acapela-Group Voice Heather. It is only
  currently available in a 32 bit version for the Windows operating
  systems. (64 bit Heather is available for Apple's Snow Leopard).
  
  There is a fix that permits the display of all installed Voices and
  the selection of any as the system default Voice. This is to
  execute:
  
  C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Speech\SpeechUX\sapi.cpl
  
  rather than using the Control Panel TTS Voice selection.
  This fix works properly except for one unfortunate problem.
  
  The Visual C/C++ statement
  
      hr = m_cpVoice.CoCreateInstance( CLSID_SpVoice );
  
  correctly sets up a Voice object regardless of the default
  system Voice.
  
  The Visual Basic statement
  
      Voice = New SpeechLib.SpVoice
  
  results in a system hang or program abort if the default Voice has
  been set to anything other than a properly registered 64 bit Voice
  like Anna. "Try Catch" doesn't catch this error. Note that
  Set Voice = CreateObject("SAPI.SpVoice") also fails with the same
  error.
  
  There is no easy solution to this problem. It may, however, be less
  of concern as more 64 bit TTS Voices become available.
  
  First, Microsoft should certainly change the Control Box TTS selection
  to use the same code as "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Speech\SpeechUX\sapi.cpl".
  
  Second, Microsoft should correct the problem with the way in which
  The Visual Basic statement "Voice = New SpeechLib.SpVoice" functions.
  There is no reason for this not to have the same capability as its
  Visual C/C++ counterpart.
  
  Third, application programs that use TTS could be written completely
  in Visual C/C++, the creation of the Voice object could be in an
  Visual C ActiveX control or a wrapper could be used to access
  CoCreateInstance.
  
  Fourth, it may be possible to modify the Voice registry entries so
  that 32 bit Voices work with the Control Panel TTS listing. It is
  easy to modify the registry so that the Voices are displayed. There
  is, however, a consistent error message regarding a failure of audio
  output. The TTS registry entries are generally well documented.
  Unfortunately, there are multiple entries for which there is no publicly
  available documentation. This plus a lack of technical assistance from
  either the third party vendors of TTS Voices or Microsoft makes it
  impossible to resolve the registry entry problem at this time.
  The registry issues are not a concern when you use
  "C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Speech\SpeechUX\sapi.cpl".
  
  Fifth, One important reason for being able to change the system
  default TTS Voice is to provide an alternate Voice choice for programs
  like MapPoint which automatically select the system default Voice.
  There is no other user option for changing MapPoint's Voice.
  There is a MapPoint registry key at
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MapPoint\17.0\USA\PreferredTTSEngine
  that looks as if the TTS Voice can be selected. Unfortunately, there
  is no documentation for this entry and changing the Voice name doesn't
  override the system default Voice.
  
  Sixth, the registry entries could be programmatically changed so
  that the default Voice meets the requirements of
  "Voice = New SpeechLib.SpVoice" only for this one statement. The
  original entries are then replaced prior to further usage of the
  Voice object.
  It is far from perfect, but we have chosen this approach as the
  best current compromise for our programming environment. One
  unfortunate limitation is that Windows 7 64 bit and Windows Server
  2008 R2 use different TTS registry directory paths and Values for
  DefaultTokenId.
  Incidentally, an invaluable tool for working with the registry is
  Registry Workshop for X64. It can do copy/paste in addition to
  multiple other helpful registry operations.
  
  The following code snippet demonstrates the methodology.
  
  
     'Created inside Form_Load and released inside Form_Unload.
  
      Dim WithEvents Voice As SpeechLib.SpVoice
      Dim modifyRegistryFlag As Boolean = False
  
      'Code snippet from Form_Load
  
          Dim keyName, userRoot, subkeys, defaultString, oldString As String
          Dim OSName, OSPlatform, OSVersion As String
          OSName = Trim(My.Computer.Info.OSFullName.ToString)
          OSPlatform = Trim(My.Computer.Info.OSPlatform.ToString)
          OSVersion = Trim(My.Computer.Info.OSVersion.ToString)
          If InStr(1, OSVersion, "6.1") >= 1 Then
              modifyRegistryFlag = True
              If InStr(1, OSName, "Microsoft Windows 7") >= 1 Then
                  'Registry directory path for Windows 7 64 bit
                  userRoot = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER"
                  subkeys = "Software\Microsoft\Speech\Voices"
                  'Default DefaultTokenId string for Windows 7 64 bit
                  defaultString = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\MS-Anna-1033-20-DSK"
              Else
                  If InStr(1, OSName, "Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2") >= 1 Then
                      'Registry directory path for Server 2008 R2
                      userRoot = "HKEY_USERS"
                      subkeys = ".DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Speech\Voices"
                      'Default DefaultTokenId string for Server 2008 R2
                      defaultString = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\MS-Anna-1033-20-DSK"
                  End If
              End If
          End If
  
          keyName = userRoot & "\" & subkeys
  
          If modifyRegistryFlag = True Then
              'Retrieve name of default Voice
              oldString = ""
              Try
                  oldString = Registry.GetValue(keyName, "DefaultTokenId", "-1")
              Catch ex As Exception
                  MessageBox.Show(ex.Message.ToString, "TTS Error:Get Current Default Voice", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button1)
                  Exit Sub
              End Try
  
              If oldString = "-1" Then
                  MessageBox.Show("No DefaultTokenId", "TTS Error:Get Current Default Voice", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button1)
                  Exit Sub
              End If
  
              'Set default name to Anna if she is not the default
              If oldString <> defaultString Then
                  'MessageBox.Show(oldString & vbCrLf & defaultString)
                  Try
                      Registry.SetValue(keyName, "DefaultTokenId", defaultString, RegistryValueKind.String)
                  Catch ex As Exception
                      MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "TTS Error:Set Default Voice", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button1)
                      Exit Sub
                  End Try
              End If
          End If
  
          'Creates the voice object
          Try
              Voice = New SpeechLib.SpVoice
          Catch err As Exception
              MessageBox.Show("Error Creating SpeechLib Voice" & vbNewLine & err.Message, "TTS Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button1)
              Exit Sub
          End Try
  
          If modifyRegistryFlag = True Then
              'Restore original default Voice
              If oldString <> defaultString Then
                  Try
                      Registry.SetValue(keyName, "DefaultTokenId", oldString, RegistryValueKind.String)
                  Catch ex As Exception
                      MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "TTS Error:Restore Default Voice", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button1)
                      Exit Sub
                  End Try
              End If
          End If
  

  ---

  Robbie

  Sunday, November 15, 2009 5:42 PM