That is an odd problem for sure. I can't say I've ever encountered this. The voice I chose has stuck ever since I've been using it. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful. Maybe Google will turn up something for you, it could be some obscure bug that only affects a small number of systems, or there might be a fix.

Hmmm. That's quite interesting. I'll see if the same thing happens to me if I run Narrator. If so, that really should be reported to Microsoft, it's not good if such a bug exists.

@Turtlepower, yep, using narrator does indeed reset the voice to ms Hazel, it's quite crazy really.

@Socheat, that sounds like a pretty cool addon, and I might give it a try, since while the voice I have at the moment is pretty good, I've always liked having a screen reader and sapias different, just so that I'm not listening to the same thing all the time.

Lastly, I have an ms office question.
I do need a copy of office, or at least of Microsoft word to finish my thesis, plus I might even try outlook :D. But I'm not sure on obtaining one, since I don't really need microsoft's hole 365 program with access to all files (I still like my bbackup drives).

Can I buy just straight out office  somewhere?
I checked the Microsoft store, and the first thing that came up was "office free" which I assume is the right thing, though I'd prefer some confirmation here just to check.

Hmmm, I've not bought software from amazon, or is office still only installing on disk?

I know office isn't free, but when I checked In the  windows store office  was listed as free.
I assume this is because you get a free trial and then after a week or so something will pop up along the lines of "toon using office send us your soul, or first born son, or bladder" or just lots of money .
I actually thought buying directly from Microsoft theoretically be cheaper as well, though again I could be wrong.

as far as the subscription goes, my only issue with that is whether office itself will stop working if subscription runs out, since while I may or may not use cloud backup service, I certainly will be using office for the conceivable future, though again, whether the subscription also gives you use of office on other machines is a concern as well since it's conceivable I'll buy a windows 10 laptop or tablet at some point.

@Turtlepower, if it were just me, I'd probably libber office, but not with what's at steak at the moment, since it'd be quite a disaster not to have the thing working.

While I'm not sure about the 365 subscription, on the other hand, I do wonder about updates and access fixes, if stand alone copies office don't get updated, since with Microsoft committing to access, updates might actually be a good idea at this point.

Btw, another random question I have enabled showing of file extensions, however I was wondering if there was a way to show specific! file extensions, since generally I don't find  every extension read helpful.

In xp and windows 7 this was all through the file types setup,  but windows 10 doesn't seem to have the same thing.

Edit: okay, I've now found what the problem is with resetting 32 bit voices, it's whenever you run the windows mobile voice, since I got the addon to run George with Nvda, and sure enough, bye bye goes my Sapi.

@Nidza, I do think the voice is specific to region, since I haven't seen mark.
The fact that the mobile voices show up as a separate synth in Nvda suggests to me  they probably are a different engine to sapi.
Then again, I don't have any 64 bit sapi programs to test them on besides narrator itself.

To be honest though it's not a major deal since I have decided for the time being to use orphius human sounding voice Alan with nvda, as while George sounds pretty good, the reaction speed is a little slow.

I'll probably have to find something else eventually, especially if I am switching from Supernova later and so don't have access to the sam engine, but I'll be okay for now.

Btw, to get back to windows 10I do have a couple more questions.

firstly, is there a way to copy folders from the start menu to the desktop? It'sirritating to install something and then only have the basic "play" icons on the desktop so that if I want to read the manual or go to the website or whatever I have to go trauling the program files folder for the actual files to create desktop shortcuts.

I've tried the applications key, but other than "pin to task bar" there doesn't seem to be an option.

I also would like to stick a wordpad icon on my desktop, as it's something I use regularly, ditto with mail, although it's possible I'll be switching to another program since while the default mail is okay I'd prefer a less irritating contacts and replies management system, ditto with a separate folder for copies of sent items and draughts, (I'll probably try out some programs and see which I like best and cooperates best with nvda).

Either way, for now if there is a way to find shortcuts of stuff in the start menu that would help a lot.

I'm still not decided about which version of office to get, whether the stand alone or the 365 version.

On the one hand, 365 is cheaper in the short term, on the other, it's probably more expensive long term since it is likely I will have this pc for at least another four or five years (possibly even more).

I don't particularly need the cloud storage as I prefer manual backups anyway, and besides, at most I'll get a laptop at some point to have a travelling machine so all the vaunted "portability" won't affect me too much, and from what I understood about the licensing if you want 365 on multiple machines you need the 5 computers version which is more expensive anyway.

On the other hand, I do wonder about updates to office especially with narrator and whether if I buy the standalone home and student version if I'll miss out on future upgrades.
this wouldn't usually be a concern with office, but I do like what is done with narrator so far, and with office being microsoft's flagship project, it is likely access upgrades will be included there first.

Does anyone have any opinions on this?

Hi socheat.
That certainly worked for wordpad which is great, also I do seem to be able to use it in program folders, eg, the draconis entertainment esp pinball classic folder to shift the icons for things like the player's guide to my desktop so I can put them where I want them.

I do wish I could just copy the hole folder, but hay.

One odd thing happened when I tried make a desktop shortcut for mail though.

Cortana said "mail trusted windows store ap" and when I bought up the context menu, the option to add to desktop wasn't there, which was very weerd indeed!

Well, I have uninstalled several things, though a few things like the weather ap are actually vaguely useful.
I'll likely stop using the mail ap at some point and switch to something else, but for now, it'd be nice to have a better way of finding it than the start menu.
Never mind, it doesn't take so long to hit windows key, type mail and then press enter .