How to Completely Turn off Cortana from Windows 10 (2020)

The final version of Windows 10 was released back in 2015, and with an amazing evolution of OS, we also got an assistant called Cortana. As it was revealed that, a lot of people were getting disheartened and wanted to disable Cortana completely.

The foremost reason for disabling it was that Cortana was collecting information from the computers and uploading the gathered information on the multiple servers. Though there was not enough evidence to prove it right it still manages to give tension to a lot of people.

How to Turn off Cortana on Windows 10?

Turn off Cortana on Windows 10

Microsoft has really worked hard to resolve the grievances of people and did a lot of research to improve Cortana. There are still a lot many people who are completely distancing themselves with the AI assistant.

This happened because the integrated information and technology have not been spread out as we thought it would be and that is the reason Cortana doesn’t feel like an actual AI. If we look at the current stage, Cortana is actually lacking the most basic AI features that can be really useful. We agree that it has some special features too but if we compare Cortana with advanced systems like google assistant, or Siri, it just feels entirely incomplete.

What is Cortana?

As we are very much aware of the fact that Cortana is an AI assistant but, most people are not really aware of the origins of this soft-spoken AI. Cortana inherited its name from the iconic AI in the Halo series, it is also available on windows phone 8.1 and windows 10 from the very start.

AI has consistently worked but couldn’t please many people because they think that it is irrelevant to the ecosystem and serves no purpose to the technical world. AI has also been accused of collecting data and sharing it with the other servers. Cortana’s coding has a lot of special features that are built into it. Despite a lot many questioning it still serves some of the features that users found it really helpful.

Cortana is one platform that can manage your important events every single day. Cortana consists of things like setting reminders, scheduling meetings, flight timings that presents a healthy and effective experience to its users.

Cortana is really human-like that make your life even simpler. It takes notes for you, schedules your events, set reminders, and search for things for you. You can also get all the information that you need like a recent movie release, worldly things, or even a joke. AI has the potential to control the entire Windows ecosystem. Cortana is an innovative step in the right direction even if you compare it to google assistant or Siri by apple and read more about Cortana here.

Can We turn off Cortana on windows 10?

After being accused of sharing and collecting private data from other servers, people wanted to restrict themselves from Cortana. There were no sinful intentions behind collecting data, it simply was a practice that no one approves. Microsoft was guilty and issued an apology and provided a method to disable or turn off Cortana if you wish to.

There are many ways from which you can turn off or disable your Cortana. But if you are wondering whether you can permanently delete Cortana or not, Microsoft is seeking ways to help you with the same but at this point in time, it is not possible. We are sharing several ways hoe you can disable or turn off Cortana.

1. Turn off Cortana Via Group policy in Windows 10

Step 1: Open the local group policy (GP), editor.

Type “gpedit.msc” in the taskbar search bar and hit Enter to open the Local Group Policy Editor

Step 2: Head over to following

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search

Step 3: Open the settings box

Simply Double-click on Allow Cortana to open its configuration panel

Step 4: Get Rid of Cortana!

Set the settings to Disabled, click Apply and Exit.

2. Disabling Cortana through registry editor

Turning off or disabling Cortana was easy earlier. However, Microsoft is trying all ways to please users to stay. The very convenient thing about Cortana is the people find out ways to disable it. This process might be intimidating but we will discuss many others to disable Cortana later. For now, we must focus on what is important.

Step 1: Press Windows + R keys on your keyboard to open the Run window.

Step 2: Type in Regedit in the search bar, and press OK.

Step 3: Entering the command will take you to the registry editor. On the left side, check out HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then tap on the program, and followed by Policies, and then tap on Microsoft, tap on Windows, and then tap on the Windows Search.

Now here is the tricky part, in some cases, the Windows Search folder is not there. If it is not, simply right-click the Windows folder, click on New, and then click on Key. Name that folder Windows Search.

Step 4: Select the Windows Search folder on in the left pane, move over to the right side of the pane, and right-click on the empty space. From the menu, click on New, and then click on DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Step 5: Once you are done, there you will find a new window in which you can add name the DWORD (32-bit) Value you just created. Simply move further and type ‘AllowCortana’. In the Value Data section, you just have to type 0.

Step 6: All you have to do at this point is to click OK to make sure that your settings have been saved.

Once you are done with all the steps, simply go ahead and restart your computer. Once the computer boots up, you will no longer have Cortana working.

Final Verdict about turning off Cortana

It would be an injustice if I say that Cortana is a bad AI, it indeed is not. It is just a matter of a fact that Microsoft promised so much and failed to deliver it. But if we look at the facts, we will find that Cortana has got a huge hit after users found out that it is collecting information and hampering their private data. If you wish to keep your data private, disabling is the best option.

To give relaxation to its users, Microsoft has thankfully found out multiple ways to disable it by improving the whole windows ecosystem with advanced functioning and keeping the preferences of the users in mind.