How to turn off Cortana in Windows 10 ?

Cortana is Microsoft's version of an "intelligent personal assistant", created for Windows. Cortana can answer questions, search for files, set reminders, recognize voice, and answer questions using information from the Bing search engine.

Since the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (version 1607), however, Microsoft has removed the option to tun off this personal assistant. If you'd still like to turn off Cortana completely to save some precious resources, you now have to make a simple registry edit.

On systems running Windows 10 Home, your only option to turn off Cortana is a manual registry edit:

1. Start the registry editor (search for: regedit , run it as administrator)
2. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search (you may have to create this key if it doesn't exist).
3. Create a 32-bit DWORD value: AllowCortana , and make sure it is set to 0 (zero).


On systems running Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise, instead of using the registry editor above, you can also use GRoup Policy to apply the setting. To use Group Policy Editor, find/start gpedit.msc, and navigate to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search > Allow Cortana, and set it to "disabled".