Voice-based virtual assistants are currently dominating the technological landscape. Whether it’s Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistants are revolutionising the way people search online today.
Cortana, Microsoft’s voice assistant, isn’t doing particularly well, despite the boom in voice assistant technologies. Even more significantly, as of January 2020, Cortana will be removed from the Windows search bar, the Xbox One, and it will no longer be available as a standalone app.
The following post is for those of you who aren’t also big fans of Cortana and want to get rid of it completely. We’ll go over the various options for uninstalling Cortana on Windows 10 in the sections below. So, let’s bid farewell to Microsoft Cortana for the time being.
Reasons to Remove Cortana Windows 10
Despite Microsoft’s constant efforts, Cortana has failed to achieve the widespread popularity enjoyed by its competitors. Many factors played a role in Cortana’s downfall, including the following:
When it comes to setting reminders and answering questions, it is dependent on the Bing search engine, which will only be used by 6.78 percent of online users in 2021.
Cortana is only available in eight languages, whereas Siri is available in 21 languages.
When you use Cortana, your personal information is shared with Microsoft in order to improve the user experience. However, many people are uncomfortable with this practise.
You will be required to update the Cortana application at the same time as your Windows update.
Integration with some third-party tools isn’t quite up to par yet, unfortunately.
Cortana is frequently reported to have a negative impact on the performance and speed of a computer.
As a result, there are numerous reasons to uninstall Cortana from your Windows 10 computer today. Do not waste any more time and get Cortana removed or disabled from your computer right away.
Disable Cortana on your Windows 10
Turn off Cortana on your Windows 10 computer.
Cortana, unlike other default Microsoft software, cannot be completely uninstalled from a computer or mobile device. Consequently, you can begin by temporarily disabling Cortana by using one of the following methods:
Go to the Taskbar and select Cortana from the drop-down menu.
Once the Cortana application has been launched on your computer, select it by clicking on the three vertical dots in the upper left corner.
Cortana should be turned off.
Select Keyboard Shortcut from the Settings menu.
Turn off Keyboard Shortcut and restart your computer to make the changes take effect.
Shortcut on the keyboard
After rebooting your computer, open the Cortana app and select Voice activation from the drop-down menu.
Voice activation is possible.
Uninstall Cortana on Windows 10 Using Registry
Permissions for voice activation can be found by selecting Voice activation permissions > Turn off the lights. Allow Cortana to respond to the keyword “Cortana” in a natural way.
Permissions to use voice activation
This method will prevent Cortana from responding to keyboard shortcuts or voice commands, but it will not prevent Cortana from having an impact on your search experience.
Cortana can be uninstalled from Windows 10. Making Use of the Registry
Users of Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise editions have the ability to permanently uninstall Cortana by using the Registry Editor or the Group Policy Editor, respectively. If you absolutely must get rid of Cortana, you can do so by using the Registry Editor in the following manner:
Remove Cortana on Windows 10 Using PowerShell
To open the Run command prompt, press the Windows key plus the R key or right-click the Windows icon on your desktop.
Regedit can be found by typing regedit and pressing enter.
Afterwards, navigate to HKEY LOCAL MACHINE> SOFTWARE> POLICIES > Microsoft > Windows and then right-click on the Windows directory and select New > Key from the context menu that appears.
Windows Search should be the name of your new folder, and you should right-click on it.
Then choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value from the drop-down menu.
Create a new file with the name AllowCortana and save it somewhere safe.
Double-click on the file and change the value to 0. Then click OK to save the changes.
Exit the Registry Editor window and restart your computer to confirm that Cortana has been successfully uninstalled.
For those who aren’t comfortable with the Registry method, you can also remove Cortana from Windows 10 by using the Group Policy Editor, which is described as follows:
Start the Run command and type gpedit.msc into the command field, then press the Enter key to continue.
Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search, and then click on the file you just downloaded. With a double-click, you can grant Cortana access.
Allow Cortana to assist you.
Select Disabled from the drop-down menu, and then click OK.
Cortana has been turned off.
Remove yourself from the Group Policy Editor, restart your computer, and you’re done.
Remove Cortana from Windows 10 if you want to. PowerShell is being used.
Today, you can find uninstallers that are specifically designed to remove almost any type of software from your computer. Unfortunately, there is no way to uninstall Cortana using any software. PowerShell, on the other hand, can still be used to uninstall Cortana from your computer. Let’s take a look at how:
How to Stop Cortana from Accessing your Search History
Start by going to the Start Menu and typing PowerShell into the search box.
Open the Windows PowerShell application and select Run as Administrator from the menu bar.
You must bring up a list of all the active apps in the PowerShell app window in order to complete this task. This can be accomplished by running the Get-AppxPackage | Select Name, PackageFullName command.
Then, using the PackageFullName value from Cortana, run the following command: Get-AppxPackage PackageFullName | Remove-AppxPackage
The command’s output will look something like this: Get-AppxPackage Removing a package from the registry is as simple as running Remove-AppxPackage /remove-package.mscortana 1.13.0.18362 neutral neutral cw5n1h2txyewy | Remove-AppxPackage
For example, if you want to remove Cortana for all users, run the following command: Get-AppxPackage PackageFullName | Remove-AppxPackage
The best way to prevent Cortana from accessing your search history
If the only issue you have with Cortana is that it keeps track of your search history and cloud habits, consider switching to Google Assistant. There is no need for you to go through the trouble of editing the Windows registry or running a variety of commands in the PowerShell app after that. You can easily prevent Cortana from recording your data by entering the following command:
Reinstall Cortana on Windows 10
In the Windows Run command, type Permissions and history and press Enter to execute it.
Permissions and a look back
Select History from the drop-down menu and turn off Search history on this device. Next, select the Clear device search history option to remove Cortana’s search history from your computer.
Navigate to the Finding a setting search and type in the Speech privacy settings field to begin.
Configuring the privacy of your speech
Once it has been activated, disable the option Use your voice for dictation and other apps that use Microsoft’s online speech recognition technology once it has been displayed.
Optional speech recognition technology is available.
Cortana will remain on your system after this, but it will no longer collect information or send it to Microsoft for processing.
Cortana should be reinstalled on Windows 10.
After uninstalling Cortana as Registry Editor, you may have had a change of heart and wish to reinstall Cortana as Registry Editor. It is necessary to use a system restore point because the Cortana application is no longer available on the Microsoft Store. You can also go back into the Registry Editor and delete the AllowCortana file that you created earlier if you want to avoid this.
That’s it, folks; disabling, uninstalling, or permanently removing Cortana on Windows 10 is a straightforward process that takes only a few minutes. You can use any of the methods listed above to uninstall Cortana on Windows 10 whenever it is most convenient for you. This will prevent Cortana from bothering you in the future.
