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. There are client, server, and mobile versions of Microsoft text-to-speech voices. 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. for both Windows client and server platforms, and mobile voices are often shipped with more recent versions.

Voices

Windows 2000 and Windows XP

Microsoft Sam is the default text-to-speech male voice in Microsoft

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was officia ...

and

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was release to manufacturing, released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Wind ...

. It is used by

Narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the a ...

, the

screen reader A screen reader is a form of assistive technology (AT) that renders text and image content as speech or braille output. Screen readers are essential to people who are blind, and are useful to people who are visually impaired, illiterate, or hav ...

program built into the operating system. Microsoft Mike and Microsoft Mary are optional male and female voices respectively, available for download from the Microsoft website. Michael and Michelle are also optional male and female voices licensed by Microsoft from

Lernout & Hauspie Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, or L&H, was a Belgium-based speech recognition technology company, founded by Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie, that went bankrupt in 2001 because of a fraud engineered by the management. The company was based in ...

, and are available through

Microsoft Office XP Microsoft Office XP (codenamed Office 10) is an office suite which was officially revealed in July 2000 by Microsoft for the Windows operating system. Office XP was released to manufacturing on March 5, 2001, and was later made available to re ...

and

Microsoft Office 2003 Microsoft Office 2003 (codenamed Office 11) is an office suite developed and distributed by Microsoft for its Windows operating system. Office 2003 was released to manufacturing on August 19, 2003, and was later released to retail on October 21, ...

Microsoft Reader Microsoft Reader is a discontinued Microsoft application for reading e-books, first released in August 2000, that used its own .LIT format. It was available for Windows computers and Pocket PC PDAs. The name was also used later for an unrelated ...

. There are both SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 versions of these text-to-speech voices. 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 Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a series of Microsoft Windows computer operating systems produced from 1995 to 2000, which were based on the Windows 95 kernel and its underlying foundation of MS-DOS, both of which were updated in s ...

operating systems as well. 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 redistributable versions were downloadable for Windows 9x, although they are no longer from the Microsoft website. 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, the speech patterns differed from the SAPI 5 versions of these voices. In addition, LH Michael and LH Michelle can work on

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released n ...

and later if Speakonia and the SAPI 4 version of the voices in British English is downloaded.

Windows Vista and Windows 7

Beginning with

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

and

, ''Microsoft Anna'' is the default English voice. It is a SAPI 5-only female voice and is designed to sound more natural than Microsoft Sam. Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 and later install the Microsoft Anna voice on Windows XP systems for the voice-prompt direction feature. There are no male voices shipping with Windows Vista and Windows 7, and neither Microsoft Mike or Mary will work on Windows 7. A 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. It can also be obtained in non-Chinese versions of Windows 7 or Vista by installing the Chinese language pack. In 2010, Microsoft released the newer Speech Platform compatible voices for Speech Recognition and Text-to-Speech for use with client and server applications. These voices are available in 26 languages and can be installed on Windows client and server operating systems. Speech Platform voices, unlike SAPI 5 voices, are female-only; no male voices were ever released.

Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012, and later to ...

, 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. The server versions of these voices are available via the above-mentioned Speech Platform for operating systems earlier than Windows 8. Other voices are available for specific language versions of either

or Windows 8.1. 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).

Windows 10

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on ...

, 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). These are the same voices found on

Windows Phone 8 Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft. It was released on October 29, 2012, and, like its predecessor, it features a flat user interface based on the Metro design language. It was ...

Windows Phone 8.1 Windows Phone 8.1 is the discontinued third generation of Microsoft's Windows Phone mobile operating system, succeeding Windows Phone 8. Rolled out at Microsoft's Build Conference in San Francisco, California, on April 2, 2014, it was released ...

and

Windows 10 Mobile Windows 10 Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft. First released in 2015, it is a successor to Windows Phone 8.1, but was marketed by Microsoft as being an edition of its PC operating system Windows 10. W ...

. Also with these voices language packs are also available for a variety of voices similar to that of

and 8.1. None of these voices match the Cortana text-to-speech voice which can be found on

, and

. In an attempt to unify its software with

, all of Microsoft's current platforms use the same text-to-speech voices except for Microsoft David and a few others.

Mobile

Every mobile voice package has the combination of male/female, while most of the desktop voice packages have only female voices. All mobile voices have been made universal and any user who downloads the language pack of that choice will have one extra male and female voice per that package. A hidden text-to-speech voice in Windows 10 called Microsoft Eva Mobile is present within the system. Users can download a pre-packaged registry file from the windowsreport.com website. Microsoft Eva is believed to be the early voice for Cortana until

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

replaced her with the voice of

Jen Taylor Jennifer Taylor is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Cortana in ''Halo'' games and the intelligent personal assistant. Career Jen Taylor taught herself how to do voice work by recording the radio and imitating what she ...

in most areas. These voices are updated with Windows to sound more natural than in the original version as seen in updated retail builds of Windows 10.

Windows 11

Windows 11 Windows 11 is the latest major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, released in October 2021. It is a free upgrade to its predecessor, Windows 10 (2015), and is available for any Windows 10 devices that meet the new Windows 11 ...

, it introduced three new "natural voices" starting with version 22H2: Microsoft Aria, Jenny, and Guy.
The voices from Windows 10 were retained and reclassified as "legacy voices", however David was still used as the default for the desktop client.

References

External links

Text to Speech Software
{{DEFAULTSORT:Microsoft Text-To-Speech Voices Speech synthesis software Microsoft software