Microsoft Adds Wake on Voice Capabilities to Surface Studio

Microsoft Adds Wake on Voice Capabilities to Surface Studio

Microsoft issued a single driver update for Surface Studio last night. And while that may not seem all that exciting, it adds “Wake on Voice” capabilities to the PC workstation.

That’s right. You can now say “Hey, Cortana” to wake your Surface Studio.

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

There is one caveat, and I think we’re going to see a lot of this with Surface updates going forward: This driver update, and thus this new capability, are only available on Windows 10 version 1703. That is, you need to have installed the Creators Update first. (Microsoft’s latest Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 updates also only apply to the Creators Update.)

According to the Surface Update History website, what you’re looking for is the following:

Realtek Semiconductor Corp. driver update for Realtek High Definition Audio(SST). Realtek High Definition Audio(SST) in Sound, video, and GC 6.0.1.8061 enables Wake On Voice from Modern Standby.

This is the first driver update Microsoft has released for Surface Studio since January.

Also, if you’re a Surface Pro 3 user, Microsoft has issued a single update for that device as well. Dubbed Surface – Firmware – 38.12.70.0, this one improves system stability and performance when you change between power states, and does not rely on you first having the Creators Update.

 

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 10 comments

  • jwpear

    Premium Member
    20 April, 2017 - 9:06 am

    <p>Wake on Voice is interesting.&nbsp; Is this to support an Alexa like experience or just for&nbsp;those that don't want to&nbsp;shake the&nbsp;mouse, tap a key, etc. to wake?&nbsp; It seems like it would a step toward&nbsp;offering an Alexa experience without having the machine on all the time.</p><p>I'm curious if they're able to achieve instant wake.&nbsp; My experience with my office SP4 and personal SP3 is that is it doesn't wake instantly.&nbsp; It takes&nbsp;5-10 seconds.&nbsp; That would be frustrating for any sort of Cortana interaction.&nbsp; Perhaps the Surface Studio is optimized to wake more quickly.</p>

    • Nick Vlittas

      20 April, 2017 - 10:07 am

      <blockquote><a href="#99085"><em>In reply to jwpear:</em></a><em> I am sort of in agreement..Oddly enough I use "ok Google" more than I thought I would on my Pixel XL so I can see the convenience in being able to set a timer, make a to-do item etc. Really like where this is going but your right implementation will be key if it's actually ready. On a side note makes me sad because Windows Phone with it's seemless integration with Cortana and my Surface P4 would have been a joy to use….. MS is again missing so much with this failure </em></blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><p><br></p>

  • CaedenV

    20 April, 2017 - 10:30 am

    <p>… how do I retrofit this kind of tech to my 5 year old desktop… this needs to happen!</p><p><br></p><p>If this requires a newer motherboard it would go a long way towards getting me to upgrade</p>

  • matsan

    20 April, 2017 - 10:54 am

    <p>They removed Wake On LAN support from power off in Windows 10 but now add Wake On Voice… Sigh….</p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      20 April, 2017 - 4:24 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#99119"><em>In reply to matsan:</em></a></blockquote><p>I thought Wake on lan was a bios thing and not an OS thing since Windows isn't running while your computer is off.</p>

  • YouWereWarned

    20 April, 2017 - 11:48 am

    <p>As someone who has a sticker over my webcam, this "always-on" microphone is concerning. Until we have a full accounting of the datastreams back to the mothership ALL OF THE TIME, I won't play. We just this month got formal confirmation of the gigantic list of "diagnostic" transmissions — what about transmissions outside of failure diagnosis? The opaque examples of this in the EULAs is not informative, by design.</p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      20 April, 2017 - 4:23 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#99154"><em>In reply to YouWereWarned:</em></a></blockquote><p>It would be pretty easy to detect if they were streaming audio out of your home if you cared to look at the volume of traffic going out.</p>

  • Michael

    Premium Member
    21 April, 2017 - 3:09 pm

    <p>I was waiting to install the creators update so will see how this works on the studio in a couple of weeks.</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC