Using Windows System.Speech for TTS in PowerShell 7 (is there an alternative?)

PowerShell Help
1

I have the same profile.ps1 in both WindowsPowerShell and PowerShell.
It includes commands that invoke Windows Text-To-Speech.

However, these commands fail when run in PowerShell 7.

The errors occur when I try to use the $PomrptTTS object I create with the following code:

<span class="typ">Add</span><span class="pun">-</span><span class="typ">Type</span> <span class="pun">-</span><span class="typ">AssemblyName</span> <span class="typ">System</span><span class="pun">.</span><span class="pln">speech
$PromptTTS </span><span class="pun">=</span> <span class="typ">New</span><span class="pun">-</span><span class="typ">Object</span> <span class="typ">System</span><span class="pun">.</span><span class="typ">Speech</span><span class="pun">.</span><span class="typ">Synthesis</span><span class="pun">.</span><span class="typ">SpeechSynthesizer</span>

In PowerShell 7, any attempt to access or use my $PormptTTS object, produces the following:

SetValueInvocationException: ....\profile.ps1:82
Line |
  82 |  $PromptTTS.Rate = 0 ; $PromptTTS.Speak("Time for the $((Get-Date).DayofWeek) shuffle")
     |  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | Exception setting "Rate": "Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

MethodInvocationException: ....\profile.ps1:82
Line |
  82 |  … e = 0 ; $PromptTTS.Speak("Time for the $((Get-Date).DayofWeek) shuffle")
     |                                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | Exception calling "Speak" with "1" argument(s): "Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

<p class=“lang-bsh prettyprint prettyprinted”></p>

2

If you’re script works fine in windows powershell you could possibly use this?

PowerShell 7.0 marks a move a to .NET Core 3.1, enabling significantly more backwards compatibility with existing Windows PowerShell modules. This includes many modules on Windows that require GUI functionality like Out-GridView and Show-Command, as well as many role management modules that ship as part of Windows.

For Windows, a new switch parameter UseWindowsPowerShell is added to Import-Module. This switch creates a proxy module in PowerShell 7 that uses a local Windows PowerShell process to implicitly run any cmdlets contained in that module. For more information on Import-Module.


https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/whats-new/what-s-new-in-powershell-70?view=powershell-7

 

3

Hi @KrzyDoug,

I’m afraid I do not follow …

How does “Add-Type” and “New-Object” correlate to “Import-Module”?

4

I was just thinking you could try to run your existing script that works fine in 5.1 using this, but it may not do what I’m thinking. From what I gather it creates an implicit remoting session to 5.1, so you should have access to properties. However most methods won’t be available. When you say “access $PromptTTS” what types of actions do you take up on it? Either way, it’s just an idea!

5

According to my research, the issue is stated as such

Beginning in PowerShell 6, ReferencedAssemblies doesn't include the default .NET assemblies. You must include a specific reference to them in the value passed to this parameter.
So basically if you want to use the .net assemblies, you'll need to add them into your powershell session. I was able to do the following and at least got the type of object we were after. Perhaps adding this to the top of your script will fix it. 
[Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile('C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.0\System.Speech.dll')

Then I was able to run those two commands.

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.speech
$PromptTTS = New-Object System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer

And get-member showed this

$prompttts | gm

TypeName: System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer

I hope this helps.

6

Hi @Doug,

Yes, I too got that far, BUT, the object created was effectively empty and so unusable

7

I have been provided with an answer – by mklement0 at StackOverflow

>>>

As of PowerShell 7.0 / .NET Core 3.1, System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer is considered a .NET Framework-only API and therefore not supported in .NET Core.

  • A discussion about this is ongoing in this GitHub issue; since the underlying API is specific to Windows, the question is whether it's worth exposing via the cross-platform .NET Core framework.
The workaround is to use the SAPI.SpVoice COM object (which the .NET Framework implementation is ultimately based on, I presume): 
$sp = New-Object -ComObject SAPI.SpVoice
$sp.Speak("Time for the $((Get-Date).DayOfWeek) shuffle")
>>>
 
8

I saw his post and was coming to share it here if needed. Mr. Klement is amazing, I regularly just go to his profiles and view his answers (at various sites) I always learn a ton from his extensive answers. So this workaround directly with the COM object has allowed you to use this in powershell 7?