How to Disable Cortana in Windows 10
When Windows 10 first released, turning off Cortana was as simple as flipping a switch in the digital assistant’s settings, but Microsoft removed the option in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update.
Now there’s no obvious way to disable Cortana but it is possible by registry hack.
This will only enable or disable Cortana the personal assistant, and not the Cortana process (SearchUI.exe) used by Windows Search.
If you disable Cortana, you will see a search icon or search icon on the search box instead of a Cortana icon on the taskbar.
Cortana will still run in the background with limited functionality.
With that out of the way, let’s start registry hacking.
1. Press Windows + R keys and type regedit.exe into opened Run box, click OK button.
2. Once the Registry Editor is open, navigate to the following registry key in the left-hand navigation pane:
3. If there is no Windows Search folder. If it isn’t there, right-click the Windows folder, select New > Key, and name it Windows Search.
4. With the Windows Search folder selected in the left-hand navigation pane, right-click in the main portion of the window and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
5. Name the DWORD value as AllowCortana.
6. Afterward, double-click it and in the box that appears, ensure that the Value Data is set to 0.
That’s it! Close the Registry Editor, then restart your computer.
If you ever decide to enable Cortana, simply retrace your steps in the Registry Editor and either delete the AllowCortana value, or simply set it to 1 instead of 0.
Enable or Disable Cortana using a Batch Script file
1. Download the Disable_or_Enable_Cortana.zip archive file.
2. Right-click Disable_or_Enable_Cortana.zip archive file and click Extract All from the context menu.
3. Double-click Disable_or_Enable_Cortana.bat batch script file.
4. Click Yes button from User Account Control (UAC) dialog box.
5. Type Y letter to disable Cortana or type E letter to enable Cortana.
6. When you're ask to restart your computer for changes to take affect, restart your computer.
Now there’s no obvious way to disable Cortana but it is possible by registry hack.
This will only enable or disable Cortana the personal assistant, and not the Cortana process (SearchUI.exe) used by Windows Search.
If you disable Cortana, you will see a search icon or search icon on the search box instead of a Cortana icon on the taskbar.
Cortana will still run in the background with limited functionality.
With that out of the way, let’s start registry hacking.
1. Press Windows + R keys and type regedit.exe into opened Run box, click OK button.
2. Once the Registry Editor is open, navigate to the following registry key in the left-hand navigation pane:
Code:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > Policies > Microsoft > Windows > Windows Search3. If there is no Windows Search folder. If it isn’t there, right-click the Windows folder, select New > Key, and name it Windows Search.
4. With the Windows Search folder selected in the left-hand navigation pane, right-click in the main portion of the window and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
5. Name the DWORD value as AllowCortana.
6. Afterward, double-click it and in the box that appears, ensure that the Value Data is set to 0.
That’s it! Close the Registry Editor, then restart your computer.
If you ever decide to enable Cortana, simply retrace your steps in the Registry Editor and either delete the AllowCortana value, or simply set it to 1 instead of 0.
Enable or Disable Cortana using a Batch Script file
1. Download the Disable_or_Enable_Cortana.zip archive file.
2. Right-click Disable_or_Enable_Cortana.zip archive file and click Extract All from the context menu.
3. Double-click Disable_or_Enable_Cortana.bat batch script file.
4. Click Yes button from User Account Control (UAC) dialog box.
5. Type Y letter to disable Cortana or type E letter to enable Cortana.
6. When you're ask to restart your computer for changes to take affect, restart your computer.