Enable Hidden Text-to-Speech Voices in Windows 10

Microsoft Windows 10 comes with two text-to-speech engines or voices which vary for different language versions of Windows. For example, the US English version of Windows 10 comes with Microsoft Zira and Microsoft David voices. These voices can be used in Microsoft apps and desktop applications. But Microsoft also uses two separate voices for Cortana which again vary for various language versions of Windows. In case of US English version of Windows 10, Cortana uses Eva and Mark voices. These voices are not available for any other application except for Cortana itself. But with a little modification of the Windows Registry you can enable these voices for all the other applications as well.

In order to enable these hidden TTS voices for all the applications in Windows 10, you have to add a few entries to the Windows registry. To make things easier, you can just  download enable-eva-mark-voice-windows10.zip, extract the contents to a folder and double-click on the REG files inside. The Eva Voice Windows 10.reg file enables the Eva voice and the Mark Voice Windows 10.reg enables the Mark voice in Windows 10.

Mark and Eva Voices in Windows 10

After enabling these new voices, you can open Control Panel and choose the default voice. You can press the Win+X and select Control Panel from the menu. In the Control Panel, search for “speech” and then click on the Change text to speech settings. In the window that opens, you can choose a default voice from Voice Selection list-box and then finally click on OK button.

Install Third Party TTS Voices in Windows 10

Conclusion: You can easily enable Microsoft Mark and Microsoft Eva that are hidden inside Windows 10’s Cortana files. By enabling these extra voices, you will be able to use them in all the other desktop applications.

4 comments

  1. Hi,
    Thanks a lot for this article – it pointed me in the right direction.
    Some remarks:
    – the registry keys are slightly different for 64bit version of windows.
    This is the target location then:
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\…]
    – to generate keys for other voices you may want to export keys from
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Speech_OneCore\Voices\Tokens\…]
    and modify them in Notepad++ or other editor
    – there are some other features available in the speech related keys – e.g. look for “SampleText” to modify the text read under “voice preview” button
    – depending on version of windows 10 the control panel screens look slightly different. In 1903 you can download new languages directly in Settings -> Regional&language -> Speech (there is some official help available for that)

    best regards,
    Michal

    1. I Completely agree, works in April 2021 on latest Windows 10 20H2.

      To do this, download and open the .reg file in text editor and change the target registry PATH as follows:

      for EVA voice (Cortana)

      From:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SPEECH\Voices\Tokens\MSTTS_V110_enUS_EvaM
      To:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\MSTTS_V110_enUS_EvaM

      and under Attributes Section also change it:

      From:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SPEECH\Voices\Tokens\MSTTS_V110_enUS_EvaM\Attributes
      TO:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\MSTTS_V110_enUS_EvaM\Attributes

      After this the voices were visible under free text to speech program -> Balabolka

      You can repeat the same with the other voices as well.

      Thanks

  2. Hello,

    I know this worked prior to 1703, but it doesn’t appear to work after the update? Any idea if this should work post 1703 or how to enable the same functionality?

    Thank you for the post!

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