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Early on when Windows 7 first got released, I was able to get Mandarin text to speech (Microsoft Lili) working (see basic instruction here), but not long after, the feature appears to be broken on English OS without warning, so even up to this date, I can't get Microsoft Lili working on English version of Windows 7.

Moving on to the spanking new Windows 8, and I thought well, maybe it was a bug in Windows 7, and Microsoft may have fixed the issue, but inside Windows Update under Windows 8, I don't even see any optional language support pack anymore. So does anyone know a way to get Mandarin text to speech work on English version of Windows 8? Thanks a bunch

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  • Note that I am aware of the language settings within Windows 8, that allows for alternative text input in foreign language, but that contains no text-to-speech feature
    – Antony
    Commented Nov 20, 2012 at 19:38
  • Furthermore, even if I get the released language packs for Windows 8, that still only further makes changes to the system wide display languages (localization of your user interface), still not text-to-speech feature either :/
    – Antony
    Commented Nov 20, 2012 at 19:39

3 Answers 3

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It appears that the Chinese TTS support in Windows 7 is very broken, and unlikely to have Lili voice working on English version of Windows 7.

However, it is still possible to get alternative Chinese TTS over to Windows 7, by following the steps

1.Download Microsoft Speech Platform Runtime (at the time of writing, the latest version is 11.0)

2.Download Microsoft Speech Runtime Languages (in my case, it is MSSpeech_TTS_zh-TW_HanHan.msi)

3.Write your own C# code

using SpeechLib;

namespace ExampleCSharpSpeech
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            SpVoice voice = new SpVoice();
            foreach (ISpeechObjectToken token in voice.GetVoices(String.Empty, String.Empty))
            {
                if (token.Id.Contains("TTS_MS_zh-TW_HanHan"))
                {
                    voice.Rate = 1;
                    voice.Voice = token as SpObjectToken;
                }
            }
            voice.Speak("我以前曾經在微軟工作", SpeechVoiceSpeakFlags.SVSFlagsAsync);
        }
    }
}
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Text to speech has changed in Windows 8 and you can't get Lili for windows 8, instead you have Microsoft HuiHui, but she still sounds almost like Microsoft Lili. My question: Did you have Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate at that time? If so then yes you can get the voice through Windows Update by installing the Chinese Language Pack. The language will not change until you hit something to make it change, because I have done this before, doesn't take effect immediately. Strangely, Lili speaks English as well as Chinese. But as far as getting it on Windows 8, you will end up with Microsoft HuiHui.

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But as far as getting in Windows 8, you will end up with Microsoft HuiHui. Whatever the answerer above said does actually not work for Windows 8. I have tried this on Windows 8 and got errors, and it states in Wikipedia, The Microsoft Speech Server Platform is for systems from Windows 2000 to Windows 7.

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