Free Speaking Time Information for Windows

Speaking time information is a small application which make your computer talks and telling you about time. This is my first application for windows, I know there are lot of lackness about this newbie application. But I can assure you that this small application is really useful. The Speaking Time Information uses the computer default voice for windows. I just make use of it and call the computer voice using simple visual basic script to speak the current time. This is not a complex program, really simple actually even a newbie like me can create it. These are what and how the program does.

• Speaking out loud telling You about time.
• Easily customized to set notification time for 15 minutes, 30 minutes or hourly.
• The sound comes the computer default voice (which is different in among Windows OS)
• The voice pack can be added manually, even now Time Info App automatically speaks your own languange, off course windows supported languages
• Convert text to speech (TTS) with audio saving functionality
• Create Alarm or Reminder which you can set to your own schedule

The program is running perfectly for windows 8, far much better than used in Windows XP. We know, windows XP has microsoft SAM as the computer default voice which is clobbered and weird voice, doesn't heard like real human. But now Windows 8 has three different type of voices, MS David (US Male), MS Hazel (UK Female), and MS Zira (US Female). These voices are really resembling human for real. And when it is used to tell you about time, it is so cool! This is how this app looks like:

Time Info Download & Installation

Download Time Info Application from the following options:

1. Speaking Time Info 1.1.0, NET Framework 4.5
2. Speaking Time Info 1.1.0, NET Framework 2.0 (For older Windows)
3. Speaking Time Info 1.0.2, new features added.
4. Speaking Time Info 1.0.1 with UI for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10. New simple schedule configuration with 3 schedule option and more. Please try this as it is my first windows application I need to make sure that it is working properly. Your contribution are welcome.
5. Speaking Time Info Windows XP
6. For windows XP user, You must add password to your current profile first to run this program normally. 8 users are not required to.
7. Extract the file and open, wait until the program finish the extraction and done.

By default, the application will run once in hour. You can override this by changing the schedule task, you may customize it to run more often or may be rare. For Windows 8 User, press Start » type schedule » see the search bar in the right pane and click setting » click the schedule task and there you can change the setting. For XP, Vista and 7 user open schedule task from Control Panel » Performance and Maintenance » Schedule Task.

Voice Pack

By default Windows has already built in and pre installed language package, it varies among the Windows version. Windows XP has clumsy speech voice called SAM, while Windows 7 voice is much better with Anna. Windows 8 and 8.1 comes with 3 different voices, David, Zira, and Hazel. Sadly Hazel has been removed from pre installed voice from Windows 10. But don't worry you can bring Hazel back to your Windows 10. In fact, it is possible to add all of Windows voices to your Win 10 Computer.

To add more voices to your Windows, just go to Settings -> Time and Language -> Region and Language then Add a Preferred Language. Download any language pack you wish then set the Speech setttings, language pack that are contains voice has different icon. Alternatively, you may want to add language pack manually:

1. First you need to install Microsoft Speech Platform Runtime, currently version 11, download here.
2. Then download the Microsoft voice pack, choose any language you want. These voices even works fine in windows 7.
3. Install both of them (the Speech Platform Runtime got the first order).*
4. If new voice not detected, open Registry / regedit.exe, then go here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech Server\v11.0\Voices\Tokens
5. Locate the Token Name, ie TTS MS Hedda (de-DE), right click it then select export. Save it as ie. newTTS.reg
6. Right click newTTS.reg and Edit as follow:

   Replace:
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech Server\v11.0\Voices\Tokens\TTS_MS_de-DE_Hedda_11.0]
   with
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Speech\Voices\Tokens\TTS_MS_de-DE_Hedda_11.0]
   or rename ...Speech Server\v11.0/Voices to ...Speech\Voices (remove the bold texts)

7. Save it and then Double click it / Merge to add it to registry. Now the new voice can be seen and listed in windows default voices.
8. Optional but recommended, do the same steps from number 4 to 7. But this time edit the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Speech Server\v11.0\Voices\Tokens.

Changelog:

*Feb 01 2020
Updated to version 1.1.0
- Added Text to Speech
- Added Reminder with major changes in appearance

*Jan 11 2020
Updated to version 1.0.9
- Digital clock updated with new settings
- Analog clock updated with new settings
- Time info is now saying "hi" addresing your name whenener the app started

*Jan 5 2020
Updated to version 1.0.6
- Added More voice option
- Added Comment menu
- Added Report Error menu

*Jan 4 2020
Updated to version 1.0.3
- Added option to disable or re-enabling time Information

*Jan 2 2020
Updated to version 1.0.2.0
- Tools menu created
- Added Mark voice activation menu (Windows 10)
- Added Mark Eva activation menu (Windows 10)

*Feb 22 2014
Updated to version 1.0.1.0
- Added update checker
- Fixed minor error

*Dec 9 2013
Time Information App Published

Info and FAQs

This application is my first windows program, there are lackness and still lot to do to make it better. And see also my third application Simple System Tweaks tweaking and fixing windows tool. I'm actively developing the program and listening to your feedback and offcourse fixing problems, any suggestions are kindly welcome. Please submit your question or suggestions regarding to the program by mail, I'll add it to this section in the future.
Thank you for anyone using this application, hope you like it. Don't forget to "LIKE" this page and my Facebook Fan Page as your appreciation as well as to notify for the latest update. If you found this application is helpful you may contribute and buy me coffee

License

The usage of the application is totally free and is released under GPL, it's an open source. You have the freedom to use and distribute copies of this free software, but it strongly recommended to leave the credit intact.