If you're using other third party TTS engines such AT&T's Natural Voices also re-install these engines from your disk.

b) Your system resources may have become depleted, try re-booting your system.

Important: When installing the Ultra Hal or CyberBuddy programs or characters you should make sure you have administrator privileges to ensure the appropriate files are installed to the main windows directory and not the secondary windows folder under the user's personal directory folder.

Where your characters should be installed ...C:\WINDOWS\msagent\chars and NOT C:\Documents and Settings\USER\WINDOWS\msagent\chars

Of course, if your running an NT system the main windows directory path will look like this ... C:\winnt\Msagent\chars

First make sure you are logged onto your system with a user account that has administrator privileges and try copying and pasting C\Windows\Msagent\chars (or C\winnt\Msagent\chars if you are using NT) into your IE browser's address field and see if the DesktopMates character appears in the folder. If it doesn't appear then you need to install the character to this folder.

You also may want to do a search on your system to see if you have 2 msagent folders installed on your system and if the character was installed in another location. To do this GO to start and then search and then all files and folders then type in either char or msagent and then select your C drive then click search) and note if the msagent or char folder appears more than once. If it does you need to find which folder contains your DesktopMates character and copy and paste it into the second folder where she is missing, if the character isn't located in either folder or if only one msagent or char folder shows up and the character is not there, then you don't have it properly installed. And you will need to either run the setup again to install your character or find out where it is located on your comp by doing a specific search on the character's name and manually move the character to the proper required folder.

After installing or moving the character file to the main windows directory, and your character still doesn't appear in the Ultra Hal character selection list, you may also need to try reinstalling the Ultra Hal program making sure you have system administrator privileges.

NOTE: If you're wanting to install and setup CyberBuddy for multiple users on your system try the procedures in the next FAQ question ... "How do I install CyberBuddy for different users?".

NOTE: If you are running windows NT or windows 2000 Pro, please remember that you must manually change the directory path location during the DesktopMates character setup to install to this path ... C\winnt\Msagent\chars this often a common overlooked problem why a character isn't properly installed and will cause the character to either becomes improperly installed, or depending on the user's system configuration they will alternately receive a directory path not found error message during the install process.

There are a variety of ways to accomplish installing programs for multiple users on the XP O/S. Some are more complicated than others and since CyberBuddy is a bit different than most programs where it's settings are unique to a user's specifications, some multiple user installation methods may not be effective for this purpose.

Here's a fairly easy method .... when logged on as administrator go to your control panel and select "User Accounts" and then either create a new user account or click an already created user account in which you want to change permissions and then select "Change the account type" and then select the "Computer Administrator" instead of "Limited", then click the "change account type button". This will give the user's account the ability to install programs and access all directories etc. Now log on as the user and proceed to download and install CyberBuddy and/or Answerpad. You may also need to download and install any additional or extra voices or add-ons you want for this account as well. Once you have everything setup and working, if you don't want this user to continue to have full access to the system log back on with your original admin account (your own personal account with admin privileges) and change the user's account status back to "Limited", this shouldn't disable the use of CyberBuddy, they just won't be able to install certain programs and have full access to all system and directory files.

WARNING: Although this will technically give the user their own version of CyberBuddy with their own settings, they will still have access to and the ability to load any characters you have installed on the system. The characters are installed into a default character folder which is part of Microsoft's Agent components which is a windows system directory folder and you can't create multiple system folders and directories for each user. The only way to hide or prevent usage of certain character files from other users is to go to C:\Windows\Msagent\chars while logged on with admin privileges and then right click on the character file you would like to hide and select "Properties" and then check the "Hidden" box and then click "Apply". This will hide the file from users that don't have admin privileges.

Refer here for further info on how to change or create User Accounts on XP

This would require special custom development and licensing.

In order to properly utilize and dynamically load MS Agent characters onto a web page requires advanced knowledge in streaming and that an MS Agent character be created and built in a special file format that has an ACF file extension. Characters being utilized with desktop applications are created in a ACS format and DesktopMates characters are only available in this format. There are many reasons why we don't create and offer our characters in a ACF file format, first is the lack of interest in using this format, and as cool and tempting as the idea may seem to use MS Agent technology on a website, there are many drawbacks to it, since most DesktopMates character file sizes tend to be very large (typically over 10 MB) it will consume a lot of bandwidth and be slow loading for visitors with slow systems or dial up connections and it can even freeze an un-expecting visitor's browser or computer, and it also requires that the visitor already have MS Agent technology installed on their system, as well as the intended voice engine. Because of the problems associated with using ACF files on the web, we simply are unable to endorse or recommend it's use. Being one of the major leaders and developers in this technology for many years, if it was a great idea you'd think we'd be utilizing it on some of our web pages to try and enhance our products, we have tried in the past and it was just too problematic as well as being very annoying to regular and frequent visitors. If your wanting an interactive web host, the most efficient way is to have it developed in flash. Try searching the internet for companies that specialize in this type of development.

NOTE: This works with CyberBuddy and most other MS Agent programs but some programs may rely on the name that was programmed into the character's software rather than just it's file name.

Please don't ask us how to create characters in hopes to be able to create your own characters of similar quality. Before you run out and invest in any expensive animation and modeling software to create characters, you first need to know that these software programs have a strong learning curve to them and creating characters for this particular technology is a very complex process including some of which is not even part of the modelling or animation software and we just don't have the time to offer any help or assistance should you become stumped, which you you will most definitely encounter. We also have a special patented process for creating characters for this technology that we are unable to disclose or reveal.

• From the error message, Go to "Global Security Settings" - from here look for the window that says "Macromedia Flash Player Settings Manager". You will make your setting adjustments in this window
• Choose "Always Allow"
• On the "Edit Locations" drop down box, select "Add Location"
• Highlight and copy the link in the bottom box which should be C:\WINDOWS\Web\Wallpaper ... paste the URL in the top box titled "Trusted Locations" and hit "Confirm".

You can also manually locate and delete DesktopMates and any other MS Agent characters on your computer by simply coping and pasting C:\Windows\Msagent\chars into your browser's address field.

To unintall character plugins from Hal you'll have to manually do this by going here C:\Program Files\Zabaware\Ultra Hal Assistant 6

There's 3 files to delete, as an example we'll use the Dawn character as a reference, under the main directory folder look for a file named Dawn.UHP and delete it, then open the sub folder named Characters and look for 2 JPEG files named dawnprvw.jpg and dawnstrt.jpg

A quality headset is highly recommended. A wired (non-USB headset) is also probably the best bet as it's going to be more reasonably priced, plus quite a few of the USB headsets on the market don't work well with speech recognition, even though many claim it does on their packaging.

So which headset is the best and what type or model should I get?

There's so many headsets on the market and the models change year by year making it impossible for us to personally test or recommend specific models. However there is a company on the net that is probably the best authority on microphones, especially when it comes to voice recognition programs. They personally test various microphones and only sell models that pass their own accuracy tests. So for all intensive purposes, they are only selling the best models.

SpeechControl.com

The "Andrea ANC-700" is a good choice and is around $60. What it boils down to, is how much you can afford to spend, but the most expensive doesn't always necessarily mean better accuracy, the biggest differences between a moderately priced quality headset and the real expensive ones are technological advancements , convenience, comfort etc., for example ... if having a wireless USB model is important to you then it will be more expensive, and may or may not be more accurate than a mid ranged wired headset.

Places like Best Buy and most other computer retail chain outlets aren't the place to get advice on buying a headset specifically for voice recognition, they typically only rely on the manufacturers specs printed on the box.