Introduction:
Cortana, Microsoft's virtual assistant integrated into Windows 10, has been both a helpful tool and a source of frustration for users. While some appreciate its voice-activated features and personalized assistance, others find it intrusive and prefer to disable or rectify Cortana to enhance privacy and system performance. This guide aims to walk you through the steps to disable or rectify Cortana on Windows 10, offering users greater control over their computing experience.
- Understanding Cortana:
Cortana is designed to assist users by responding to voice commands, providing reminders, and delivering personalized recommendations based on user behavior. However, some users may find these features unnecessary or intrusive, leading them to seek ways to disable or rectify Cortana.
- Disabling Cortana:
Disabling Cortana can be achieved through the Windows 10 settings. Follow these steps:
- Click on the Start button and select "Settings."
- Go to "Privacy."
- In the left-hand menu, select "Speech, inking, & typing."
- Click on "Stop getting to know me."
- To disable Cortana completely, toggle off the "Online speech recognition" and "Get to know me" options.
Keep in mind that disabling Cortana through these steps may also affect other speech-related features on your system.
- Using Group Policy Editor:
For users running Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education editions, the Group Policy Editor provides additional options for managing Cortana:
- Press
Win + Rto open the Run dialog, typegpedit.msc, and hit Enter. - Navigate to "Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Search."
- Locate the policy named "Allow Cortana" and double-click it.
- Choose "Disabled" and click "Apply" to disable Cortana.
- Editing the Registry:
For users comfortable with registry edits, this method offers more advanced control over Cortana:
- Press
Win + Rto open the Run dialog, typeregedit, and hit Enter. - Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search."
- Create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value named "AllowCortana" and set its value to 0.
Always exercise caution when making changes to the registry, as improper edits can lead to system instability.
- Rectifying Cortana for Improved Privacy:
If you want to keep Cortana but enhance privacy, you can manage its permissions:
- Go to "Settings -> Privacy -> Speech, inking, & typing."
- Click on "Stop getting to know me" to clear your data from the cloud.
- Adjust other settings to limit data sharing according to your preferences.
Conclusion:
Whether you choose to disable or rectify Cortana on Windows 10, the methods outlined above provide users with the flexibility to tailor their computing experience to their preferences. By understanding and implementing these steps, you can gain greater control over Cortana's impact on your system, promoting a more personalized and privacy-conscious Windows 10 experience.
It works just like Siri and helps in searching your computer, sending emails, setting reminders, etc.
With a single toggle you could turn off Cortana but no longer this is the case.
However, if you use Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise, you’ll need to make changes to Group Policy Editor.
For this, you can use RegClean Pro.
Also, make sure you have created a System Restore point as it will help to get back the system if anything goes wrong.
Now, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search.
The updated version of MS Windows 10 is packed with Chat-based Cortana UI interface.
Here is how to use Chat-Based Cortana UI:Getting Calendar and Schedule AssistanceYou can easily organize and manage calendar events via Cortana UI assistance.
To do so, login to your assistant and then connect the personal Calendar to either school or work to keep track of your schedule.
For instance:Am I free at 7 PM?What’s the next schedule on my Calendar?Organizing Online MeetingsDo you wish to join online meetings on Microsoft Teams with this updated mechanism of Cortana UI?
You may easily join your official meeting with your office clients without thinking more.
For example:First of all, you have to launch PowerPoint.Then, turn on Wi-Fi by navigating the Wi-Fi settings page.Getting Weather and News UpdatesCortana will definitely help you to manage your outings by providing prior information regarding possible weather updates.What are the top headlines today?How’s the weather?Searching People Profile in OrganizationIf you desire to learn about people working in your organization, then take Cortana’s help, and it will assist you to ease your work.
Developers have integrated these smart assistants into different devices, including smartphones, security cameras, etc.
They are voice assistants that follow your voice command to perform smart activities.
Furthermore, completely removing or uninstalling Cortana is risky as it is an in-built application from Microsoft.
Also, there is no official help from Microsoft for uninstalling Cortana completely.
If your PC has Windows 10 installed, you can disable it through the Windows registry.
Do not hurry in the process.
No, I don't mean the terms and conditions...
Microsoft emitted an update to next year's Windows 10, aka 20H1, last night, with some tweaked networking and the spreading of the creepier-than-you-might-have-realised Cortana to more Insiders.
Build 18956 is very much a steady-as-she-goes affair for Fast Ring Insiders as Microsoft continues to recover from the accidental blurting of the OS to all rings of the Windows Insider program, regardless of the desires of its unpaid army of amateur testers.
A user can then drop into the network to see what is actually using that precious data and slap on limits accordingly (although only on a network basis at present.)
As if to underline the inconsequentiality of the thing, Microsoft suggests wheezes such as asking it the weather, or requesting a joke.
The underlying assistant technology will, of course, find its way into Office.
This error usually suggestions that the Windows attempts to communicate with the Microsoft servers have been unsuccessful.
Hence, log out of your account and check if the issue of Cortana something went wrong error still persists.
Here’s what you need to do:Open the Start menu.Select the user icon.Now, click on the Sign Out option.After that, log back into your Microsoft account.Hopefully, doing this will fix the Cortana issue.Fix 3: Select the same languageIn order to interact with Cortana, you have to give her commands.
Hence it is suggested that you choose the same device and speech language along with the country or region language.For changing the languages, here’s what you need to do:Open the Start menu.Click on the Settings option.Select Time and Language.Click on Language and then select any supported language for Cortana below the Windows display language.Click on Region and make sure that it is supported.Now, just go to Speech and see if the Speech language is the same as Cortana language.Fix 4: Select a different Cortana languageEven if the device language and speech language are the same, and you are still facing the Cortana something went wrong error, then you must go to the Cortana settings and change its language to a supported one.Just follow the steps given below:Open the Start Menu.Select Settings.From the Settings screen, select Cortana.Or else, you can click the search option and select the settings icon.Move to Talk to Cortana.Now, you can change the language.Fix 5: Run the troubleshooterWindows comes with an inbuilt troubleshooting tool that can fix many issues.
Here’s how you can troubleshoot the Cortana issue:Launch the Start menu.Hit the settings option located in the left section.Select Update and Security.Go to the Troubleshoot section.Select Search and Indexing.Now, click on Run the troubleshooter.Follow the guidelines shown on the screen to begin the troubleshooting procedure.
This will bring the directory of all available Troubleshooter.
