Windows 10 Cortana is Speaking in 10061 !!

Saltgrass · Apr 23, 2015

On my new clean install, Cortana is actually speaking when it responds.

I had the panel lock up when I first enabled the Respond to Hey Cortana setting, but after a reboot it seems to be working better.

Many questions are met with "I can't do that until after an update". More use of the App may help its operation.

I suppose if I had any advice, it would be to not rush it. Give it time to react before speaking again.

Does anyone know if you can set it to use IE instead of Spartan?

MikeHawthorne · Apr 26, 2015

Hi

I see what you mean, when I set my playback option to Realtek Digital Output (Optical) I can see the activity bar move when Cortana should be talking.

Link Removed

OK, I disabled it (I had to disable both of the Digital Output Options) and Cortana is talking again.

Thanks for the information, that may be the problem that most people are having.
They need to set it so that it defaults to the device being used.

Mike

ussnorway · Apr 23, 2015

FYI if you have Cortana on a Windows phone it kills the block unwanted calls option... not worth it imo but Microsoft knows whats best for us!

MikeHawthorne · Apr 24, 2015

Hi

I would think that you can set Cortana to use IE, on my computer it's using Chrome.
I'm guessing it's just because I have that set as my default browser.
I don't remember making these settings in Cortana.

I have to add that just to confirm this, I just asked her for the nearest Chinese restaurant to my home and it gave me a link to one in Levittown Pennsylvania, and I live in Michigan.

Seems like it could come a little closer then that.

Mike

Saltgrass · Apr 24, 2015

I suppose if you search with Google or anything else, you get a better answer?

I am not really sure the databases have been set up to support those type of searches. I was also wondering how it was determined which sites Cortana could recommend. I assume there has to be some safe search listing somewhere.

MikeHawthorne · Apr 24, 2015

Hi

I really thought that she was doing these searches when I first started using her.
I'm pretty sure she gave me a local address, but now I only get a web page not connected to where I live.

If I type the query into Google it shows me a list of restaurants in my area including the one I always get food from.

Mike

Saltgrass · Apr 25, 2015

I found out why Cortana wasn't speaking on one of my installs. I watched the playback devices when a response was being given to see if any levels were showing. I noticed my Realtek Optical output was showing the level changes when it was responding. I disabled that device since I don't use it and the sound went to the Speaker output.

I can now hear it fine and I almost got it to respond to Hey Cortana.... Well, it may be a pronunciation situation, using the a versus ä.

MikeHawthorne · Apr 25, 2015

Hi

Interesting, I quit using my Sound Blaster Card and started using Realtek Audio.
It solved my problems for everything else, but Cortana still doesn't speak.

My computer also shows 4 outputs for Nvidia HDMI Audio, but my speakers don't plug into an HDMI plug.

My Sound Blaster card isn't even detected by build 10049, that's why I switched.
It was by all the previous versions.

Mike

Saltgrass · Apr 26, 2015

Mike, open the Playback devices dialog from the speaker icon, ask it a question and see if you can find which device is showing the level change. For some reason the utility ignores the default setting for output and may be using something else.

This, of course, assumes you can see the circle indicating it is speaking by moving as it does so.

MikeHawthorne · Apr 26, 2015

Hi

I see what you mean, when I set my playback option to Realtek Digital Output (Optical) I can see the activity bar move when Cortana should be talking.

Link Removed

OK, I disabled it (I had to disable both of the Digital Output Options) and Cortana is talking again.

Thanks for the information, that may be the problem that most people are having.
They need to set it so that it defaults to the device being used.

Mike

Saltgrass · Apr 26, 2015

Disable the Realtek Digital audio....... The output should move to the speakers.

MikeHawthorne · Apr 26, 2015

Hi

I did and it worked.

Mike

Saltgrass · Apr 26, 2015

Good, now if you figure how to make it consistently respond to Hey Cortana, let me know....

MikeHawthorne · Apr 26, 2015

Hi

She responds to Hey Cortana for me pretty much every time, but she doesn't always get what I say after that.

Here's a weird one, I just this minute said "Hey Cortana, tell me a joke" to see if I was telling the truth about her responding.
She said "Sorry I didn't get that" but on the screen she showed, "What part of the keyboard to astronauts like most?" "The Space Bar!"

So apparently she can say one thing and type something else at the same time!

That's a little strange, I thought that she just read what she typed.

I use her all the time to play my music, I created a Cortana Playlist that has over 10 hours of music in it. She plays them at random so I never know what going to come up.

I can actually say this when I'm sitting on the other side of the room reading, so it's actually pretty useful.

I just asked her to tell me a joke while the music is playing.
She paused the music, told me the joke and resumed the music when she was done.

"What do you call a boomerang that won't come back?"
"A stick"

They need to do better then that. LOL

Mike

Saltgrass · Apr 27, 2015

It only responds to be about 10 % of the time. Usually once and then it is done. There have been times when it responded more than once, but not very often.

If the utility worked as well as it seems to on a phone, we should not be having these problems. I have been trying to watch the Task Manger to see what process shows activity when she actually responds, but haven't found it yet.

Edit: I will get the error below which has happened 12 times in the last hour. I have not investigated why it might be happening, but I suppose I should.

Activation of app Microsoft.Cortana_8wekyb3d8bbwe!CortanaUI failed with error: The app manager is required to activate applications, but is not running. See the Microsoft-Windows-TWinUI/Operational log for additional information.

MikeHawthorne · Apr 27, 2015

Hi

Well she does some things well, I asked if I need a coat today and she gave me a pretty complete weather update verbally.
But it I ask her to find Windows 7 forums, she comes up with, "I didn't' get that!"

I hope that when shes all ready to go that she can locate my favorites that I have saved in some way.
So I can say go to Windows 7 forums and have her open the page, etc.

As for her not responding, have you messed around with your microphone settings.
Maybe setting sensitivity higher might help, I can pretty much talk in a normal tone and she gets it.

Mike

Saltgrass · Apr 27, 2015

OK, I am now really, really upset. I sang for Cortana and it did not recognize the song !!!!!

Right now, for me it isn't so much about what Cortana can actually do but getting it to work correctly and consistently. It did find a local Chinese restaurant, but if it doesn't respond every time, it will not be usable.

I also notice, every time it speaks, at the end it repeats the last part of the phrase just after it makes its statement.

Has anyone suggested the activation phrase of "Hey, Cortana" be changeable by the user? I suppose I will check the feedback and see.

Sonny · Apr 27, 2015

Cortana is not what is supposed to be. The error message you got was the same as what I got yesterday before going back to 8.1. I checked my event viewer and that message came up 318 times just before my computer crashed. I don't plan on going back to 10 for awhile but have thought maybe the next clean install might correct the problems.

MikeHawthorne · Apr 28, 2015

Hi

She works more then 9 times our of ten on the first try on things I know she can do.
Right now she's playing a Julie London song.

I haven't had her repeat anything at the end of her messages.

She just switched to Frank Sinatra. LOL
It seems she's in a 50s mood.

What I need is a list of functions and phrases so I have some idea about what she is supposed to be able to do.

I think that ten years from now voice activated computer will be a normal everyday thing.

We are close, I messed around with it in Windows 8, and I could open the forum, and post a message without touching my keyboard. I did it once just to do it.

But it was still easier to just click the keys.

But as I get older the day may come when it will be really handy to be able to do a lot of the stuff with speech only.

Well it gets weirder, just now my computer suddenly with no prompting from me said, "Your sound is working correctly, no need to reinstall the sound drivers at this time".

This was in the Lucy British voice, that my computer uses, not Cortana.

To be honest I do have a sound file that says that, it's how I tested my sound every time I booted up when I was having issues but I have no idea why it played it just then, while I'm in my browser.

Has anyone seen the movie "Her". I haven't but I'll watch it when it get to cable.

Mike

Mike · Apr 28, 2015

MikeHawthorne said:
Has anyone seen the movie "Her". I haven't but I'll watch it when it get to cable.
Mike

It was a pretty good movie, Mike!

MikeHawthorne · Apr 28, 2015

Hi

I'm looking forward to seeing it, I'm just geeky enough to start thinking of my computer as a person.
I already do that with my 2 Scottish Deerhounds Oliver and Rosie and my cat Xena that warrior princess.

My Koi on the other hand don't seem to have a lot of personality, though I've had some of then for over 15 years.

Mike

Windows 10 Cortana is Speaking in 10061 !!

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