Install Cortana On Windows 8.1 Pc
Published 9:04 AM EDT May 7, 2017Q: In November of last year I upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. Then at the beginning of 2017 the Windows 10 Anniversary Update got installed onto my PC. This took an extremely long time to do (over an hour) and also produced the witch Cortana. I don't want her, can't switch her off and she pops up all the time whether I'm connected to the internet or not.
How can I put Cortana back in the bottle?— Bob Wallace, Vero BeachA: Cortana is Windows' personal assistant application. The program made its debut with the initial installation of Windows 10 in 2015 and currently can be found both on computers running that operating system and also on mobile devices connected to various Windows 10 platforms.Cortana itself can be a very handy tool.
She can be used to search the computer for files, locations, programs and tasks, can serve as a search engine for the web (replacing Microsoft's Bing search) and can set reminders, to-do lists and more for you (i.e. The 'personal assistant' part of the equation). If your system is set up for speech recognition, she can also perform many tasks via voice-to-text commands (a la Apple's 'Siri').Before the Windows 10 Anniversary Update in early 2017, Cortana was more of an on-demand application.
If you needed to use her, you merely clicked on the circle icon beside your Start button or asked for her via voice command and she would activate; if you didn't, then you could simply ignore her.After the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, she took on a more interactive role so that she could become (per Microsoft's wishes apparently) better integrated into daily computing. As a result, she now appears more often than ever and at times can become intrusive (think of her as a Windows-based variation to the old Paper Clip character from MS Office).Further complicating matters is the update transformed Cortana into the main search tool for your hard drive. This means she now a fixture for everyday Windows operation (versus an add-on, as she was before).Because of that, it is very difficult to disable and ignore her, but it is not impossible.You are able to uninstall Cortana from Windows if desired, though doing so is complicated.
It requires a lot of editing of the System Registry, which can result in additional unwanted changes in operation and stability. (And those changes may be compromised or reversed when the next major Windows update occurs.)To remove Cortana, follow the instructions at this URL: better option may be to adjust Cortana's settings to better fit your computing needs. This can include lessening her intrusions on daily computing and limiting her ability to connect to various internet-based servers when she deems it necessary to do so (versus when you do).Instructions for doing this can be found at this URL: the webduolingo.comLooking to learn a second language? Then make a point to visit this educational destination. You can sign up for one of many courses introducing you to almost 25 different dialects. Lessons are split into easy-to-digest segments and are fashioned into little games that reward successful completion with various prizes, like digital trophies and the like.
By presenting its material this way, users can adjust their lesson plans to better accommodate their learning strengths and levels of interest and enthusiasm and also have fun learning a new language (who doesn't like rewards and trophies, after all?). Best of all — the entire site is free to use. Just create an account to get started.Contact Eyal Goldshmid at egoldshmid@yahoo.com.
Microsoft added a digital assistant in Windows 10 called Cortana which can recognize your voice and do some things for you like giving you information or automating some tasks. But while it is nice to have for fun, it is far from being a seriously useful, powerful tool compared to what you can do by manually searching the web. Not every user finds Cortana useful. Many users are looking for a way to remove it, but Microsoft does not allow uninstalling Cortana in Windows 10. In this article, we will see how it can be done.RECOMMENDED:Caution: Uninstalling Cortana breaks the Windows 10 Start Menu and probably Search so don't use this if you use the native menu. You will not be able to get it working back easily. You will not be able to-reinstall it quickly without using the genuine install.wim file.
For most users, this means that Cortana will be removed from Windows 10 permanently. Think twice before you will continue.Many people I know use an alternative Start Menu on Windows 10 and getting rid of the memory consuming searchui.exe process is a significant enhancement for them in making Windows 10 perform better. Refer to the following article for more details:.So, if you decide to uninstall Cortana in Windows 10 and thereby also get rid of the memory-hogging searchUI.exe process, here is what you should do:. Download the ZIP file I made to make it easy. Extract all files from the ZIP archive you downloaded to any desired folder, e.g. Desktop.
Right click the Uninstall Cortana.cmd file and select 'Run as Administrator'. Wait till the process is done.Behind this trick is an application called WIMTweak which manages Windows Packages and allows you to hide/unhide them from the Windows image (WIM) file. It works on offline images as well as online. WIMTweak was created by MSFN user, so credits for this awesome tool go to him.RECOMMENDED:You are here: » » How to uninstall and remove Cortana in Windows 10. ↓.
JackieChanThank You, Sir, worked as promised. I am making 10 appear more and more like 7, its awesome!And the additiopn os Power shell replacing that stupid metro start interface is a god-send!(I am running 10 on a PC, not a tablet! Or touch screen.roll eyes)Having said that, I am amazed at the number of comments from people (here in the comments) wanting cortana back;The title of this article is: “How to uninstall and remove Cortana in Windows 10″not ” How to put cortana back” why would someone remove it then want it back?That’s a retorical question, needs no reply. Just THINK about it.Does anyone even do THAT anymore?.roll eyes Thanks again. ↓. robbriskyExcellent. Upgraded Acer laptop (more RAM and SSD to this 4 year old machine) was running always hot before, cooling fans always on while idle using 20% CPU resources.
You could leave it in standby but Cortana would never let it rest – always processing in the background. Terrible unwanted feature for me. Ran this.cmd program and it old laptop is now running cool as a cucumber! Major improvement to the US. Agreed, Cortana to me is more like a gimmick than a serious tool. ↓.
JohnI uninstalled Cortana by just deleting most of its files and then using Ccleaner’s registry cleaner to clean up. When deleting, be careful not to delete anything that is shared by other programs. I used the ‘Take ownership’ context menu (Right-click) app, to become the owner of files that windows didn’t want me to touch.
(Some Cortana folders cannot be deleted unless you delete the individual files in them first).Having now got rid of it, how can I be sure that a future Windows update won’t re install it? ↓. tgarcThis worked.but.
seems to have introduced some really serious side effects. At random times my video and audio playback will just stop working. Try to play something through spotify and ‘cant play song’ error is reported. Watch netflix and the video play for a fraction of a second then stops even though the video is loading (I can even skip to other sections but it only loads the image and won’t play). Try to play a video game and the game just freezes before getting to main menu (no error, just hangs and I have to force close it).
I will probably have to reinstall windows:( Wish video card support was better on linux so I didn’t have to use this garbage. ↓. (WAM)tvBill Gates is the most Evil person on earth! After African authorities caught Diplomatic Couriers sneaking Ebola laced Vaccines into Nigeria developed by Gates, he went public on “Ted” admitting that his vaccines would reduce the worlds population by Billions! Cudos to Nigeria for banning Gates and the Bayer company, but Interpol still takes orders from the Robber Barons (the Fake Jews, the Rothschilds who are actually renamed Idumeans) You had best get ready to say goodby to computing as you see it today!
The web and technology is heading for a massive change to Control people rather than empower or enrich them! And Win-duhh 10 is just the beginning!!! Only Jesus Christ can stop them!!! ↓. Daniel MyersI am not wanting to uninstall Cortana, but would dearly like to sever the ties to the account that I had to create when I installed Cortana last week. Now I have to enter a PIN to log onto my laptop.I have never had a login password or PIN to any of my computers because they are also used by trusted family members, so this has been a real hassle.When installing Cortana I had to create a xxxxx@windows.com email.
That email address shows up under my photo on the welcome screen where I have to enter the PIN number.Thanks, Daniel. ↓. ParkerMy computer survived! But Cortana has deceased.I made sure to install the Classic Shell program just in case my start menu died, but it didn’t. Better safe than sorry though.
Make sure to install this before you attempt this.Thank you Sergey, Cortana has been completely removed! Using both the Task Manager and Process Explorer, it’s clear that Cortana is gone for good! (At least, until the next windows update.) I’ll let you know if I experience any negative side-effects, but I kind of doubt it.Thanks again!Parker. ↓. JessYou totally forget to avise people that once the CORTANA has been uninstalled are more likely disabled that you also disable the right to search at all on the pc, Classic Shell as you have advised to use as your so called default causes more issues than CORTANA. Why not find a way to simply disable CORTANA as well as not allowing her to use the net instead of using your very heavy HAMMER!
And nearly screwing up peoples systems, Seriously find another method and then pass it on to the good folk. ↓. AngelaThank you so much for this method of removing Cortana. I hated her from the start but the latest update of Windows 10 (sometime end Oct/early Nov16) made her pop up window cover at least one third of the screen and was exceptionally annoying as there was no button to close this window and it kept popping up and getting in the way of what you were doing. I tried ‘hiding’ her and disabling her in setting but nothing worked – she kept coming back! All is now brilliant and I don’t mind not having the search panel on the taskbar either. Well done Sergey.
↓. John B EganThis looks great. I d’loaded the program, unzipped it to a folder on my desktop and ran it as Admin. It hung immediately, apparently asking me where install.wim was located:——————————————-——–Registry Tweak Tool v1.4.7.0——-—————for Windows 6.x————-———Created by Michal Wnuowski——–—–Concept by Aviv00@msfn / lite8@MDL—-———–Modified by Legolash2o———-——————————————-Type path to mounted install.wim:I’m running Win10 Home and have no install disk.
Windows 8.1 Messenger
I have searched for ‘install.wim’ and nothing pops up.Any advice?Thx jegan. ↓.
JoeDBGreat tool for quick quality of life improvement! Thanks!For those reading comments who haven’t done this yet, prepare beforehand!1. Get and install a start menu replacement, like ClassicShell or one of the many others available. To avoid trouble do this BEFORE you remove Cortana!
This is super important, as the big red warning at the top of the page will tell you.2. Make sure you have your Windows10 install media or a copy of the ISO (which you can download from Microsoft). They aren’t needed for the removal, but you will need one or the other to undo it if for some odd reason you find you want Cortana back.3. If you are super-duper cautious, backup your system. For me this is going a bit far, but some folks like to err on the side of caution, so this is the final way to be 100% sure you can get back to normal if you want to undo the removal.5. ↓.
Sean HaneyPEOPLE!! Get a program such as FREE Macrium Reflect 6.3 and save an image of your boot drive before you make ANY changes (for just about any major changes!). Then if anything doesn’t work, you have a complete backup of your boot drive.With that said, I do have Start 10 and everything still is searchable. BUTI do have AppReadiness event errors that tell me that the uninstall failed, so if Sergey can tell me exactly what to do, I’m all for it.
Right now, I’ll just perform another Reflect image backup. I’m suspecting that since 2015 when he wrote this, there might have been some changes MS did that don’t coincide with the code he wrote. Please tell me what to do. In the meantime, I just disabled the Event log for AppReadiness.
↓. JosephI have the same problems.Within Oracle Virtual Disk or WinToUSB installations of Win 10 Prof I get errormessages, too.The script is missing the location of the registry-files, I guess.But – what a pity – I don’t know how to amend the scripts for virtual machines.Could you help with an amendment of the script?By the way – it’s the same with the script to get rid of Edge (other script).Do you know a software, which offers the same functions to get rid of Cortana and Edge?Thank you very much indeed! ↓. tgarcThis worked.but. seems to have introduced some really serious side effects. At random times my video and audio playback will just stop working. Try to play something through spotify and ‘cant play song’ error is reported.
Watch netflix and the video play for a fraction of a second then stops even though the video is loading (I can even skip to other sections but it only loads the image and won’t play). Try to play a video game and the game just freezes before getting to main menu (no error, just hangs and I have to force close it). I will probably have to reinstall windows:( Wish video card support was better on linux so I didn’t have to use this garbage. ↓. Cezar18Nov2017:Serghei script does exactly what he said. Just for the record, this is my configuration.Software– OS Name: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 bit– OS Version: 10.0.14393 N/A Build 14393– Hotfix(s): 8 Hotfix(s) Installed:01: KB3186568, 02: KB3211320, 03: KB4013418, 04: KB4023834, 05: KB4033637, 06: KB4035631,07: KB4049179, 08: KB4041691.Hardware: AMD A8-5600K 3.6GHz + 4GB RAMI just followed Serghei instructions and all worked like a charm!Note1: before running “Unninstall Cortana.cmd” in Administrator mode, I downloaded and installed the latest version of Classic Shell. The Search function is running well and I do not have any side effects (graphics or audio).Note2: For those who want a very smart Searching application, please allow me to recommend “Agent Ransack”.
Just search for it on the net and install it. Works very well and is very versatile.A BIG THANKS TO SERGHEI! ↓. Marc GarciaSo, in order to uninstall a spyware-like software as Cortana, you want me to install a script/program from another 3rd party and I have to trust in it as someone who believes in God Come on! Wouldn’t it be easier just to give the instructions about the TAKEOWN/PERMISSIONS/DELETION commands that you are surely using in your script? Sorry mate, but the cyber-world became a place of nobody-trust-anybody-else. If you are an honest, altruist developer, then please accept my apologies.
Cortana Windows 10 Setup
But just wanted to warn people that installing scripts to fix windows issues is, 99% of the times, a source of spy/monitoring affairs:( The more I learn about Windows internals, the more scary and unfair it looks to me. Frustrating:( Rolling back to Win 7 Pro in 3, 2, 1. (Win XP / Read Hat, those were the times):(. ↓. New guy2019 August And this script is powerless now: ( Cortana runs in the background not even registry tweaks do. Can not even rename the cortana folder or stop/disable services. I guess someone in microsoft find all these helping pages and did their evil.I wish that Linux become a gaming OS and more dummy like me friendly.
Cos now I just cant catch up with microsoft bulshit any more, have no control over my own mashinne: (. I hope someday some one force feed Bill Gates with sandwiches that he really do not like so he know how we feel now.