Windows 10 Cortana MIA in South Africa

[Foxhound5366]

Cortana was one of the main features of Windows 10 I was looking forward to, and I finally get my upgrade and am greeted with this:



Does anybody know if Microsoft is planning to bring Cortana to South Africa in the future, or of a handy way to hack only this without breaking the rest of Windows?

 

[Agent_Smith]

Hmm, not sure mate. You could try change your primary dns address (like I do with Unotelly) to try fool your pc into thinking you're in a region that supports it?

EDIT: Weirdly, mine seems to load?

 

[Foxhound5366]

Not fair! You must have your PC set to either the UK or US regions. I think I set mine to South Africa back when I got it *shrugs*

Windows warns that changing regions can remove your access to various things, but honestly I don't think I've purchased anything of any consequence on the Windows Store so it should be ok.

 

[Agent_Smith]

Not fair! You must have your PC set to either the UK or US regions. I think I set mine to South Africa back when I got it *shrugs*

Windows warns that changing regions can remove your access to various things, but honestly I don't think I've purchased anything of any consequence on the Windows Store so it should be ok.

Ah yes, probably. I didn't change any locational settings during installation! That must be it.

 

[Foxhound5366]

Ah yes, probably. I didn't change any locational settings during installation! That must be it.

*facepalm* That was it. I just had to change my region to United States in the Control Panel, and I can now activate Cortana! Spread the news, all ye faithful!

 

[Foxhound5366]

Ok, well that joy was short-lived. Tried voice-searching with Cortana and although she picks up what I'm saying perfectly (i.e. the correct question is there), this is the error each time (although I'm not searching for songs):



Anybody else having that?

 

[Superspeed]

Same here

Ok, well that joy was short-lived. Tried voice-searching with Cortana and although she picks up what I'm saying perfectly (i.e. the correct question is there), this is the error each time (although I'm not searching for songs):

View attachment 239492

Anybody else having that?

Same here

 

[techead]

Oh dear not good

 

[skimread]

I think it will take time to be introduced. With 11 official languages the South African English pronunciation can differ alot between various groups. Then again you could say the same about all the UK accents.

 

[Foxhound5366]

Ok, the good news is that Cortana is working again. I was having some issues with my internet connection (an unrelated issue), and now the voice search is fine (the super-cheesy jokes are awesome). It's not quite the 'fully personal assistant that you can chitchat with', but hey ... it shows some promise!

 

[Foxhound5366]

Ok, so what cool things have you discovered that Cortana can do?

I just found that I can ask Cortana to remind me things using natural language, like this: "Remind me to make coffee in ten minutes." Cortana pre-populated a reminder box and set the correct time, and all I had to do was then confirm with a "yes" or a "no" if she'd gotten it correct.

That's genuinely useful, unlike asking her what she thinks of Google

 

[Beri]

keeps on telling me something is not right. try again later

 

[Foxhound5366]

keeps on telling me something is not right. try again later

Have you tried setting the region to US and the language to English (US)?

If it's not related to that, it might just be related to your internet ... just disable your firewall, in case that's blocking Cortana's access somehow.

 

[Beri]

Have you tried setting the region to US and the language to English (US)?

If it's not related to that, it might just be related to your internet ... just disable your firewall, in case that's blocking Cortana's access somehow.

no not working

 

[Wasabee!]

Wonder if she will understand our African folk and their English or coloured people English?

 

[Foxhound5366]

Wonder if she will understand our African folk and their English or coloured people English?

Well, I saw a demo video where she perfectly understood a native Indian guy's strong accent (he even commented that he was surprised by that), so I think they've definitely got a solid voice-recognition engine built into Cortana.

 

[eg2505]

Well, I saw a demo video where she perfectly understood a native Indian guy's strong accent (he even commented that he was surprised by that), so I think they've definitely got a solid voice-recognition engine built into Cortana.

Dont be so sure of that, played around with these things before,

Quite funny reslults sometimes,

 

[Bryn]

I was pretty annoyed when I noticed Cortana isn't available here. If English is the only available language then just offer a disclaimer indicating that when enabling Cortana.

 

[Arthur]

Cortana localisation is not a language issue - the language part is easy and is largely done.

The real problem is the localised info and access to localised data and services.

 

[Bryn]

Cortana localisation is not a language issue - the language part is easy and is largely done.

The real problem is the localised info and access to localised data and services.

Google Now and Siri are severely limited in SA by a lack of local info, but that doesn't stop them from offering what they can.