How to Disable Cortana in Windows 10

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Whether you're on your Windows Phone, Xbox one or your Desktop and/or Laptop, you can seamlessly navigate through your content with the help of Cortana, Microsoft’s AI assistant. Cortana is there to help answer your questions. Now some of us may appreciate a personal assistant to aid in our hectic lives, but there are others who would rather have the software stay out of our lives due to privacy concerns. For those of us who fall in the latter category it's possible to disable Cortana in Windows 10. Here's how:

■Open the “Start Menu” by clicking the “Start Button” in the lower left corner of the screen or by tapping the “Windows” key on your keyboard.




■Type Cortana in the Start Menu Search Field.




■Click the Notebook Icon on the left side Window Pane and then click Settings.




■Under the heading "Cortana can give you suggestions, ideas, reminders, alerts and more" click on the slider to move it to the off position

Microsoft saves any previous searches you gave to Cortana. If you're interested in removing your personal details from their servers, please proceed with the following steps:

■While in the settings menu, scroll down to "Manage what Cortana knows about me in the cloud" and click the link.

Your default web browser should now open with a Bing settings page to greet you. If the link doesn't work, you may try going to this URL.

Here you will find options for your "Interests", "Saved Places", "Search History" as well as "Other Cortana Data and Personalized Speech, Inking and Typing."

■Click on "Clear" on any of the aforementioned titles and back track to the settings page to do the same on other aspects where the "clear" button is found. This will remove any locally and server based information stored regarding your search history.

That’s it! You're now done disabling Cortana!

If you'd like to disable Cortana from the get-go, then you can do so at the beginning prior to using Windows 10.

■After booting into your OS for the first time, type "Search the web and windows" in the Start Menu.
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    • Click on the first result in the search box
    • Click "Not Interested" and later confirm your choice by clicking on "I'm sure"
    

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