Since the release of Cortana – a digital voice assistant application pre-installed on Windows 10, Windows has proven to have a number of cool and interesting pre-installed applications. However, if you have Windows 10 installed on your PC and you wish to disable Cortana on Windows 10, then this post is for you.
How to Disable Cortana on Windows 10
Before we proceed on how to disable Cortana on Windows 10, let us take some time to explain what Cortana is and the reasons why you should disable it.
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What is Cortana?
Cortana is a virtual assistant created by Microsoft for Windows 10, Windows 10 mobile, Windows Phone 8.1 and some other Microsoft products.
It is a cloud-based personal assistant from Microsoft to perform a number of Windows-related tasks through voice commands. Cortana can set reminders, recognize natural voice without the requirement for keyboard input, and answer questions using information from the Bing search engine.
Alternatively, one can also type a question in the search box. Cortana is currently available in English, Portuguese, French German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese language editions depending on the software platform and region I which it is used. “The more you use Cortana, the more personalized your experience will be”, Microsoft claims.
Cortana can be activated by saying a wake-up command. Despite all the amazing features of Cortana, it has its shortcomings. As a result, in the next section, I would be discussing some of the shortcomings of Cortana and I would show you how to disable it on your device.
Why Disable Cortana?
Despite some of the amazing features we describe concerning Cortana in Windows 10, why do we need to disable Cortana? Is Cortana really our friend?
First of all, from misjudging commands to waking up out of nowhere, Cortana is pretty bad at what it does. Apart from that, Cortana is collecting our private information while giving us such half-cooked services at the same time.
Another reason for disabling Cortana is the high disk usage in Windows 10. Even after you might have hibernated your PC, Cortana takes up a lot of RAM, resulting in an inert performance of your PC.
Although Cortana has never been reported to cause 100 per cent disk usage in Windows 10, nevertheless it is still a task that quite a number of people would like to get rid of in the task manager.
So how do we disable Cortana from Windows 10?
Is it possible to really disable Cortana?
Before proceeding, we need to ask ourselves the question of whether Cortana can actually be disabled on Windows 10. Can we really disable this Microsoft’s pet project?
Yes, and No!
Sounds paradoxical? Never mind, I would explain what I meant by Yes and No. Cortana has been embedded in Windows 10 in such a way that it is difficult to remove the Cortana task manager process. Still yet, an easy way to disable Cortana is to stop all its monitoring services and remove Cortana from the Windows search.
How to Disable Cortana on Windows 10
In this section, I would be talking about possible ways by which you can disable Cortana on your Windows 10. Before you move on, I would like you to take a look at 10 Websites to Make Money Online Publishing Sponsored Posts.
1. By using Windows settings
For Cortana to perform some of the features that I described previously, such as recognizing natural voice without the requirement for keyboard input, it monitors how daily activity on Windows 10 and analyses our personal information.
This includes contacts, search queries, Internet history, location, emails, and so on. It works on the principles of Natural language processing and is coupled with a Semantic search database called Satori.
The first step in disabling Cortana is to pause all of its activity monitoring services. To know how to go about it:
- Go to Settings in Windows 10
- Click on “Cortana”
- Now click on “Permissions and History” tab
- Click on “Manage the information Cortana can access from the device”
- Toggle everything on the page from “On” to “Off”
- Click on “Manage the information Cortana knows about me in the cloud” > Cortana will open the “Personal Information” tab in the Windows search > Scroll down and click on “Clear”
- Click on your sign-in ID > Click on Sign Out
Once you follow the instructions, then you have successfully disabled all Cortana activities and removed your Cortana data. The next thing you should do, as you might have guessed, is to Hide Cortana in your Taskbar. To hide Cortana in your Taskbar:
Right Click on the Taskbar > Click on Cortana >Choose “Hidden”.
Congratulations!! You have successfully stopped Cortana services on your Windows 10.
2. Make Changes to Cortana Folder
Another way you can disable Cortana on your Windows 10 is to go to the Cortana’s home folder and make some changes. But this will not only disable Cortana but will also remove Windows search in the Taskbar as well. This means that you won’t be able to use the search box again.
To disable Cortana in Windows 10 using the method mentioned above:
- Search for “Task Manager” in Windows Search and open it
- Find the Cortana Process > Make it show its process >Right click and select Open file location.
- Find the Cortana Folder. Right-click and rename the folder by adding “.bak” at the end.
- You will see the prompt “Folder in use”
- Go back to Task Manager and stop the process.
- Go back to the prompt and click on “Try Again”
You have successfully disabled Microsoft Pet Project from your Windows 10. Cortana will not start again!!
However, if you decide to update your Windows 10 to a newer version, don’t be surprised if you find Cortana active again. Many Windows 10 users have reported such same issue. All you have to do is to repeat the same process above.
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If by chance you change your mind and you want to bring back Cortana in Windows 10, all you need to do is to revert all the changes you made while renaming the Cortana folder and you will find Cortana working again.
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