How To Disable Cortana in Windows 10
Cortana is a virtual assistant developed by the Microsoft team that works on the Windows 10 operating system to help you listen to your requests. Cortana makes life easier because it listens to our needs and fulfills our tasks according to our requests.
As Cortana gives you a huge advantage and saves a lot of time, it features access to personal data and microphones. This is the main thing that bothers users because they do not want to share their personal data with anyone. So I mentioned temporarily or permanently disabling Cortana and controlling what kind of data to share.
How to disable Cortana features in Windows 10:
How to Disable Cortana in Windows 10 Temporarily
One of the reasons some users want to deactivate Cortana is that it accidentally infiltrates, depending on the sounds and what you say in front of the PC. This happens when you insert the “Hey Cortana” command in CMD. Follow the steps to disable Cortana temporary.
Step 1: Open the Windows 10 Start Menu and type “Cortana” in the search box.
(You can also access Cortana by pressing “Windows key + C”.)
Step 2: Select the option “Change how you talk to Cortana”.
Step 3: Check the option “Hey Cortana”. Leave the option off to disable the Cortana to respond to your voices.
By disabling the commands and keeping Cortana activated you won’t suffer any intrusion. But you’ll benefit from the intelligent file indexing and contextual suggestions that the wizard provides.
How to prevent Cortana from recording and storing your data?
Initially, if you are not sure how your data will be treated by Windows, you can manage and set the settings with the permission wizard.
Just press “Windows key + C” and select the option “Permissions” on the left side of the window screen.
On the new screen, select “Manage information that Cortana can access on this device” and disable sharing location, contacts, email, calendar, communication history, and browsing history.
If you do not want Cortana to perform functions by your voice commands, just disable the feature to disable online speech recognition.
Now if you want to completely remove your saved data on the cloud, just click on the “clear” button your history of data registered in the cloud.
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How to Disable Cortana in Windows 10 Permanently
The above solution was just if you want to disable Cortana temporary. But if you want to disable Cortana permanently, then read this article further.
Before performing this operation, it should be noted that the Cortana feature is integrated into the operating system. Therefore your user experience may be affected.
If you still want to proceed, there are two ways to disable permanently Cortana. The first one is modifying Windows registries, which works for all versions, including Home. Users of Pro and Enterprise versions can also choose to Edit Group Policies.
- Modifying Windows registries
- Modifying Edit Group Policies
How to disable Cortana using the Windows 10 registry
If you are familiar with the Windows registry and go ahead. But keep in mind that you will perform this operation at your own risk.
Step 1: Press “Windows key + R” to open the “Run” option (You can also access the “Run” option by clicking “start menu and then ‘Run’ option”).
Step 2: Type the command “Regedit” and press “enter” to open “Registry Editor”.
Step 3: Now, on the left side, navigate to the directory HKEY_Local_Machine > SOFTWARE > Policies > Microsoft > Windows. Right-click on the Windows folder and select the New > Key option.
Step 4: Name the directory “ Windows Search ”. Right-click on it, choose New > DWORD Value (32-bit).
Step 5: Name the new file “ AllowCortana ”.
Step 6: To finish, double click with the left mouse button on the file and change its value to 0 (zero). Select Ok.
Step 7: Now close Windows 10 Registry Editor and restart your computer.
If you have changed your mind in the future and want to reactivate Cortana, just review the actions you took while disabling Cortana.
To do this, open the Windows 10 registry editor again, navigate to the created folder (HKEY_Local_Machine > SOFTWARE > Policies > Microsoft > Windows > Windows Search), and delete the “AllowCortana” file. Another option is to simply change its value to “1”.
Disabling Cortana with the Local Group Policy Editor
However, this is much easier to disable Cortana by Group Policy Editor for those who are using the Pro or Enterprise version of Windows 10.
Step 1: Press “Windows key + R” to open the “Run” option (You can also access the “Run” option by clicking “start menu and then ‘Run’ option”).
Step 2: Type “gpedit.msc ” and press “enter” or “OK” to open “Local Group Policy Editor”.
Step 3: Navigate to “Computer Settings > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search”.
Step 4: Double-click with the left button on “Allow Cortana”.
Step 5: In the new window, check the option “ Disabled ”, confirm by clicking OK.
Step 6: Close the group policy editor and restart your computer.
Finally, as with the registry editor method, just access the “Computer Settings > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search” directory again, click on “Allow Cortana” and change the setting to “ Enabled” if you want to reverse the procedure.
Good luck!
