Voice Attack is NOT working after Windows 10 update

[Chief Arwood]

Since updating Windows 10 (2 days ago), my Voice Attack is no longer working, and I can hear my own voice through my microphone/headphone system in my Occulus Rift. THIS has never happened before, in previous updates.

Also (not sure if this is related), I am unable to "setup" a microphone within Windows Sound control areas, as I continue to receive an error message below. However all connections are made and seemingly OK.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Gary]

Hi, Chief.

You'll want to first run through the mic setup indicated here: http://voiceattack.com/SMF/index.php?topic=63.0

It's possible that Windows has reassigned the device that the speech engine is depending on.

[iceblast]

Windows 10 added this new control center. You should take a look here, and see if this will correct your issue.

[Chief Arwood]

Thanks IceBlast and Gary.  I have worked with both of those areas today, with no success yet.  the issue appears to deal directly with "speech recognition" within Windows, as I cannot use it!  I also cannot configure the microphone; getting that same ERROR message (The Wizard could not start).  I will work on it more tomorrow, as 6 hours of this junk today, had worn my brain out!

Thanks again, guys.

[Gary]

Hi, Chief.

At first the image you posted did not show up.  It shows up now...  Is it possible that you may need to update your audio drivers?

[Chief Arwood]

Thanks Gary.  They are all up to date.  I checked them earlier.  Again, the issue appeared after updating the latest Windows 10 stuff.  I really believe that it has something to do with the speech recognition aspect of Windows, as I cannot use it at all (I get that stupid error message).  Again, thanks.

[Gary]

Something I want to throw out there for anybody reading along and has updated Windows (not just Windows 10), is that Windows will sometimes reassign device ids on update.  Not every time, but sometimes.  Also, sometimes updating a driver will do this (and/or update the name of the device).  This is across the board (mics, speakers and joysticks).  If you've chosen a channel other than the default for audio, Windows may have changed the id of the device that VA was pointing to.  If this happens to your selected audio output channel, that means that your audio will not play, as VA will attempt to output to the selected channel and then fail.  You will have to go in and change the audio output channels to point to the newly-assigned device.  If this happens to your joystick input, the joystick(s) will fail to register until you reassign to the newly-assigned device.  I've got it whiteboarded to create audio and TTS aliases to maybe alleviate some of the frustration.

Again, I just wanted to mention this since others may come along and check in this thread for other reasons.

[BeefSupreme]

This happened to me as well.  I found that the update turned the default microphone setting to off in the privacy setting.  Try looking under Privacy > Microphone (on the left side) and move the slider bar under Allow apps to access your microphone to "on".  Voice Attack started working again afterwards.

On a side note, the privacy setting doesn't have most of the programs that can access microphones because they are not technically "apps" to them, so that's a rather poor execution of privacy...

[Gary]

Ah!  Good catch on that.

[Chief Arwood]

UPDATE:  After extensive checking, I narrowed the issue to Windows, because I was unable to utilize the "speech recognition" and "set up microphone."  I kept getting an error message when I clicked on those two functions that told me that the "wizard could not start" (see image capture below).  So, I decided to REVERT BACK to the previous version of Windows.  It was easily accomplished and immediately after "going back" to the previous version, ALL the problems vanished!  Speech recognition worked.  Set up the microphone worked! and VOICE ATTACK worked!

Thus, the update of Windows to version 1803 is apparently in conflict with my computer.  Hopefully, I can learn more, soon.  But, for now, I am, again, fully operational with Voice Attack.

Thanks..............Richard

[Chief Arwood]

UPDATE:  my computer did an AUTOMATIC Windows update on August 14, again, to Windows 10, version 1803.  AGAIN, my speech recognition is no longer working via windows, and I have not been able to determine a solution.  I am using an Ocullus Rift, and I can clearly hear my voice through the microphone to my earphones on the Rift, yet, when I try to troubleshoot the mic and speech recognition issue, Windows 10 does not detect an issue, nor does it allow me to setup or conduct any speech recognition.  THIS is really frustrating.

NOTE:  my programmed keys within VoiceAttack ARE and DO work properly.  It is ONLY the voice recognition aspect that is preventing any execution of commands.  When I activate VoiceAttack, it is hearing NOTHING from me.

I will update more when I know it.

[Chief Arwood]

SOLVED!!!!

I went to the following site and "bumbled" my way through various SETTINGS screens in Windows to, ultimately, activate the speech recognition.  Frankly, it all seemed "buried" to me and, certainly, NOT user friendly.  Nonetheless, my VoiceAttack now works again, and I am thankful.  I will list below the site and the specific Windows Settings screen that, I think, corrected my issue.

Site:  https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-desktop/cannot-do-anything-with-speech-recognition/e889117b-ca04-4a8f-be09-fb2c469c40e5

Settings screen: