Microsoft Speech in windows service

Question

In my windows service .NET 4.0 application I use SpeechSynthesizer to speech some text. In Windows XP works great, but on Windows 7 it doesn't play anything. Why?

(Microsoft Server Speech Platform Runtime 11.0 + Speech Text To Speech Voice Lucia)

many thanks, Riccardo

Answer 1

From Vista onwards, Windows services are prevented from interacting with the desktop. This includes sounds too. If you want your service to do interactive stuff, you need to run a helper app at logon that communicates with your service and can be instructed by your service to do the user interaction stuff.

Answer 2

Please try using System.Speech and System.Speech.Synthesize instead of Microsoft.Speech. I have developed a tool to recoganize the voice using System.Speech which is working good for me in Windows Vista, Windows 7. Please do a check whether your windows speech system is working or not.

http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/f2964c90-68e2-4ddd-861a-bd66e5cd4434

To use "it-IT" culture

Private Sub CreateSpeechRecoginationEngine(culture As String)
    Dim _culture As CultureInfo
    For Each recognizer In SpeechRecognitionEngine.InstalledRecognizers
        If recognizer.Culture.Name.Equals(culture) Then
            _culture = recognizer.Culture
            Exit For
        End If
    Next
    If _culture Is Nothing Then _culture = SpeechRecognitionEngine.InstalledRecognizers()(0).Culture
    SpeechRecognitionEngine speechRecoginationEngine = New SpeechRecognitionEngine(_culture)
End Sub