I have kind of the same problem. In the speech properties, I have only 3 choices, Microsoft Mary, Microsoft Mike, and Microsoft Sam. I perfer to use the Voice Mary as the default but it's not in the list.
In Hal5.0, in the general options/speech, I choose Mary. The Mary voice works fine, the only problem is when I open the general options application again, it defaults to Microsoft Mary, meaning that I have to reselect the Mary voice every time I use General options.
Does anyone have any ideas how I can make Mary my default voice instead of Microsoft Mary?
The reason I like pick Mary over Microsoft Mary is because I can change the pronouncation with Mary voice and not with Microsoft Mary.
Thanks for any input anyone could offer.