Cortana is Microsoft’s assistant, the alternative that, installed on all Windows computers, is supposed to compete with Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa. But the truth is that Microsoft’s assistant is not that good, actually. Almost testimonial, the company has ended up making Cortana a standalone application.
That is why it is not surprising that there are more and more users who want to disable Cortana or even uninstall it from their computers, something possible since the arrival of Windows 10 May 2020 Update. Therefore, if in your case you do not want to know anything about Cortana, we will detail the necessary steps to deactivate it and even uninstall it on your computer
Disable or Uninstall Cortana Completely
If you are one of those who already have the latest public and stable version of Windows on your computer, you should know that you can now deactivate or uninstall the Microsoft assistant. This is possible since with Windows 10 2004 Cortana officially became a standalone app. The ability to use Alexa on Windows has a lot to do with it.
1. Disable Cortana from Task Manager
Based on this premise, it is enough to enter the list of applications at the start of the Task Manager. To do this, simply do the following:
- press the CTRL + SHIFT + ESC keys simultaneously and thus open the “Task Manager”.
- Then go to the “Home” tab and look for “Cortana” in the list of applications.
- Next, right click on Cortana and select “Disable” so that the app doesn’t consume resources or launches when you boot
We will click on Cortana with the right button and then we will click on “Disable”. Cortana will stop consuming resources and memory when it starts every time we boot the computer.
2. Force Uninstall Cortana
But you may want to go further and uninstall Cortana from your PC. Something that you can also do easily through PowerShell and an instruction that you must type, thus avoiding touching in the “Registry Editor” of Windows, although this method does not erase all traces of Cortana on the PC.
To do this, need to:
- go to the Start Menu and search for “PowerShell”.
- Once it pops up in the search, right click and select “Run as administrator”.
- when the terminal window opens, type this command: Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Remove-AppxPackage’
- Press “Enter” after typing the command to execute it.
By following the steps above, you will force uninstall Cortana from your PC. If at a certain time you want to reinstall Cortana, you just have to go to the Microsoft Store and download it and install it.
3. Remove Cortana via the Registry Editor
If you want to delete all traces of Cortana, there are some things you can do to achieve that. So in order to obliviate Cortana, you have to follow up these steps:
you have to pull up the “Registry Editor”.
- type “Regedit” and access with administrator permissions
- navigate through the side menu folders to “HKEYLOCALMACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WcmSvc”
- Enter the “WcmSvc” folder or create a new one if it doesn’t exist
- Once you navigate to or create the folder, right click it, select “New” on the context menu and click “Key”.
- Name the new Key “WindowsSearch”
- Once created, right click the “WindowsSearch” key/folder, select “New” and choose DWORD (32Bit) Value
- In the value name box type “AllowCortana” and in the value data enter “0” and click “OK”.
Conclusion
So, that’s it, people. These solutions to get rid of Cortana virtual assistant for Windows 10 are very easy and straightforward. Just follow the steps whether you wish to just disable it or remove it from your system completely and the app will bother you no more. For more tips, helps or reviews about anything tech-related, visit technoish!
