Can I install Microsoft Sapi4 / Sapi5 voices on Vista?

[Jim Bretti]

Windows Vista includes a preinstalled Microsoft Sapi5 voice named "Anna". Anna replaces the Sam voice that is preinstalled on Windows XP.

The question is can the older Microsoft voices, Mary, Mike, and Sam, be installed on Windows Vista?

Sapi5
We currently don't know of any way to install these Microsoft Sapi5 voices on Vista. The installer we normally use to install Sam doesn't seem to work at all on Vista. A different installer used to install Sapi5 Mary and Mike seems to get as far as making these voices available to Sapi5 applications, but errors are displayed when you try using either voice.

Sapi4
You can, however, install the Sapi4 versions of Mary, Mike and Sam on Vista. This installer is located at http://www.webaloud.com/files/marymksm.exe. Download the installer to your machine, and when running the install, I recommend running it as administrator. To run the installer as administrator, right click the installer from Windows explorer, and select "Run as Administrator" from the popup menu. Depending on how you are logged in, you will either be prompted for administrator confirmation, or to enter an administrator password.

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