Editing Microsoft Agent (section)

==Support after Windows XP==
In [[Windows Vista]], Microsoft Agent uses [[Microsoft Speech API|Speech API]] (SAPI) version 5.3 as its primary text-to-speech provider. (In previous versions of Windows, Agent uses SAPI version 4, which is not supported in Windows Vista and later.) Beginning with Vista, multilingual features of Microsoft Agent under a particular language version of the OS are not supported; that is, Agent will function in other languages only under a localized Windows version of the same language.<ref name=":1" />

Microsoft announced in April 2009 that all Microsoft Agent development and support will be discontinued with the release of [[Windows 7]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/win7appqual/removal-of-microsoft-agent|title=Removal of Microsoft Agent|date=May 31, 2018|website=Microsoft Docs|publisher=[[Microsoft]]|accessdate=May 2, 2019}}</ref> Microsoft is no longer offering licenses or distributing the SDK.

However, due to customer feedback, Microsoft provided an installation package of the Microsoft Agent core components for use on Windows 7.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/969168/microsoft-agent-enabled-programs-do-not-work-in-windows-7|title=Microsoft Agent-enabled programs do not work in Windows 7|website=Microsoft Support|publisher=[[Microsoft]]|accessdate=May 2, 2019}}</ref> The download supported SAPI 5.3 compatible speech engines, and also contained the character “Merlin”, which shipped with Windows Vista.