# Microsoft Narrator

Category: Geeks r Us

## Post 1 by Katie (Zone BBS Addict) on Saturday, 26-Nov-2005 23:17:15

I have heard mention, and seen the program on my PC called Microsoft Narrator, but, I'm curious to know what is it? What is its purpose? Is it accessible? I think this is it for now...thanks!!!

## Post 2 by ArtRock1224 (move over school!) on Saturday, 26-Nov-2005 23:21:14

The narator is Microsofts screen reader; it can be a life-saver, but don't rely on it regulary. It will read important dialogue boxes, some menues, and on-screen messages; it will not read Internet explorer or most advanced applications. However, it will work with notepad. Use it when you need it, but that's all.

## Post 3 by Harp (I've now got the bronze prolific poster award! now going for the silver award!) on Sunday, 27-Nov-2005 10:52:21

It can be a useful tool if, for whatever reason, your regular screen reader crashes and won't restart. That's about all I ever use it for. The hot key to start the program is "Left Windows + U"
Hope that helps.

## Post 4 by Ukulele<3 (Try me... You know you want to.) on Sunday, 27-Nov-2005 20:51:47

Oh wow! I was wondering what the hot key to start it was. Cool! Now I know! hehehehe

## Post 5 by Dave_H (the boringest guy you'll ever know) on Sunday, 27-Nov-2005 23:09:31

I agree with the earlier comments re: Narrator's utility. It's handy for doing post-windows-install setup and for those occasions when your real screen reader won't start.
Cheers,
Dave

## Post 6 by Jess227 on Monday, 28-Nov-2005 0:20:15

It's a piece of crap. It never did anything I wanted it to do. And it wouldn't work at work because the office computer doesn't have speakers. But still when I used it at home it wasn't of any use to me. Kuddos to Microcrap for trying. Maybe updating Narrator would be a good thing and maybe I might give it a try another time. Otherwise it's disabled.

## Post 7 by audioadict (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Sunday, 19-Aug-2007 3:04:02

Narrator's my life saver! If jaws crashes, I just use narrator. If neither jaws nor narrator work, you're in big trouble, and that's it for your computer.

## Post 8 by Lindsay3.14 (the Zone BBS remains forever my home page) on Sunday, 19-Aug-2007 3:30:29

Earlier this year, my JAWS was not working properly for a couple of months, putting me in 40-minute demo mode and, consequently, I found myself using Narrator more times than I ever cared to do. I primarily used it in situations where it would have been inconvenient to restart my computer such as when I was receiving files over messenger and I wanted to, say, find a particular piece of music using Windows Explorer so that I could listen to something in the meantime. AS although Narrator is certainly very primitive and I would not wish the experience of using it for anyone unless absolutely necessary, it has certainly gotten me out of some tight spots. Even in these situations, however, it sometimes decides to freeze, at least for me, which causes keys not to perform any of their functions and requires me to manually shut down my computer.

## Post 9 by Reyami (I've broken five thousand! any more awards going?) on Sunday, 19-Aug-2007 6:02:51

Please, tell me there are other voices for Narrator. Microsoft sam annoys the shit out of me.

## Post 10 by Reyami (I've broken five thousand! any more awards going?) on Sunday, 19-Aug-2007 6:06:44

Not that I've ever had to use Narator yet, but the voice ... it's just ... ugh!

## Post 11 by purple penguin (Don't you hate it when someone answers their own questions? I do.) on Sunday, 19-Aug-2007 9:50:59

The voice is definetly very hideous.

## Post 12 by CallMeAl (Veteran Zoner) on Sunday, 19-Aug-2007 11:33:42

Actually under Vista, the default voice for Narrator is much improved. Vista comes with a high quality voice named Microsoft Anna. It sort of sounds like Neospeech Kate. A warning though, if you're looking for responsiveness, this is definitely not the voice to use. I've run this on some pretty state of the art machines, core 2 duos with 4 gigs of ram, and there's like a seconds delay from the time I press a key until I hear a response.

## Post 13 by blbobby (Ooo you're gona like this!) on Sunday, 19-Aug-2007 13:05:10

In most cases, by the time you are using narrator you aren't worried about the voice. I see it as a way to get out of trouble without a screen.
Bob

## Post 14 by motifated (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Sunday, 19-Aug-2007 16:38:22

Bob, I think you put it in a nutshell. I called freedom Scientific Tech Support a couple of times, and we had to resort to Narrator to get me out of trouble. That's when I learned to appreciate it.
Lou

## Post 15 by battle star queen (I just keep on posting!) on Sunday, 19-Aug-2007 22:09:17

I've used narator when I've had to but i wouldn't use it every day.

## Post 16 by audioadict (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Tuesday, 21-Aug-2007 20:53:56

I've used narrator, and I use it when I need it. I could care less what the voice is, because I'm worried about how to fix the problem. Anyways, the voice isn't as bad as you may think it is. It's better than them robotic hardware synthesizers.

## Post 17 by synthesizer101 (I just keep on posting!) on Friday, 27-Aug-2010 15:17:45

What I do for this situation is have a portable copy of NVDA on my c drive. If that doesn't work, I'll use narrator. By the way, you can change the voice by editing your registry. Not that you'd want to... As for Microsoft Anna, I wouldn't call her high-quality. Especially when you hear her pronounce her own name like Anne, then a little fuzzy buzz.

## Post 18 by cerebral-palsite (Newborn Zoner) on Friday, 27-Aug-2010 15:24:26

you don't even have to do that, controll pannel, speech, select a voice

## Post 19 by LeoGuardian (You mean there is something outside of this room with my computer in it?) on Friday, 27-Aug-2010 17:47:05

Since NVDA 2009 I haven't used Narrator anymore, just put NVDA on a shortcut key and roll with that. You do need to use Narrator on a new machine at least till you can hook a thumb drive to it and run NVDA.
Now here's a thought: Microsoft include a NVDA with Windows.

## Post 20 by synthesizer101 (I just keep on posting!) on Friday, 27-Aug-2010 22:54:18

That works for everything else, but not with narrator. Try it and tell me if it works.

## Post 21 by kieranlittle667 (Account disabled) on Saturday, 28-Aug-2010 8:17:44

exactly. if jaws crashes i just press control ault n and if nvdaa crashes i press windows r and type nvda -r and it reloads. narrator is a piece of shite! AtLeast apple care about blind folk, and put an actual screen reader on it.

## Post 22 by robbiec12345 (Good night and Farewell ) on Saturday, 28-Aug-2010 8:33:45

My primary screen reader is JAWS. If JAWS decides to screw itself up, I do the same as Kieran and press ALT+CTRL+N to launch NVDA, which is very good for a free screen reader IMO. If that fails, then I will either try the run commands to reload either JAWS or NVDA or load narrator. If that doesn't work, then I have to either get sighted assistance, attempt to remember the keystrokes to restart the computer or use the power button and pray it doesn't screw everything up. But i've decided that for my next computer, I want to get a MacBook Pro or a MacBook because as kieran said, at least they include a useable screen reader in their OS. Oh, and in Windows 7, I don't think WindowsKey+U starts narrator; It opens the Ease Of Access centre from which you must press ALT+N (i believe) to start Narrator. But I normally launch narrator by typing narrator in to the run dialog.
Robert

## Post 23 by Lisa's Girl forever (Help me, I'm stuck to my chair!) on Monday, 14-Feb-2011 14:01:43

i've used it before. it's pretty good. smiles. for some things.

## Post 24 by synthesizer101 (I just keep on posting!) on Monday, 14-Feb-2011 17:47:13

Foreground window. Narrator. dialog. Voice dot. button. alt tab. Foreground window. Microsoft. Word. Blank. That's pretty much all it does.

## Post 25 by CrystalSapphire (Uzuri uongo ndani) on Tuesday, 15-Feb-2011 9:47:09

It can come in handy but if you absolutely need it.