Microsoft Online Voices Not Working - FIX

We've had many reports of the voices in Pilot2ATC not working.  Apparently, either the latest Windows Update (as of August 18, 2025) or a Microsoft Store server update, caused the Microsoft Online Voices to not be available.  Hopefully Microsoft will get this fixed soon.

In the meantime, here are some mitigating options.

1. Regardless of what else you do, you'll need to either Delete or Uninstall the Microsoft Online voices.  Deleting them is done on the Voice tab of P2A Settings, one at a time.  Or, you can delete all of them by Launching the "Natural Voices Installer", be sure the Online Voices option is checked and the Natural Voices is unchecked and then do the Uninstall for both 32 bit and 64bit voices.  

2. If you haven't already, you can now install the Microsoft Natural Voices from Settings as follows:

     a. Open WIndows Settings and navigate to Settings->Accessibility->Narrator

     b. Select Add on the "Add natural voices" tab

     c. Click on a voice to hear it.  If you like it, press the "Download and Install" button.  WAIT.  It takes quite a bit of time before the download starts and then it gives the progress indicator.  Repeat this for each voice.  

     d. Restart Pilot2ATC.  The 5 new voices will show on the Voices tab.

3. If not already using AWS Polly voices, you can add them to the mix.  You must get an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account and after their trial period there may be some nominal charges for the Standard Voices, but these charges are quite low.  For the Premium voices, they start charging right away and the charges are higher.  Read all about it on the AWS website.

This should get you to a point where you have 11 Microsoft voices, without using the Online voices.  Many more if you use AWS Standard voices.

When and if Microsoft fixes the problem in Windows, you can add the Online voices back in.

Dave