How to Uninstall Cortana

Cortana is a virtual and personal assistant developed by Microsoft. This features enabled with Windows 10 Operating system as a default feature. Recently I stumbled the Internet and many people searching for “how to uninstall Cortana.” Reasons are many for uninstalling Cortana, it is mainly due to some security reasons. To serve you better, Cortana has to sync everything in your PC settings as well as latest updates from the Internet. If you don’t use Cortana, you can uninstall the feature to save your Internet bandwidth. Today I will show you some simple ways to Uninstall Cortana.

Note: Uninstalling Cortana may break the Windows 10 Start Menu and Search functionality. So, it is recommended to not uninstall Cortana if use the native menu. The action is the not reversible easily. So, you should think twice before continuing.

How to Uninstall Cortana in Windows 10?

There are several methods to do so. The first one is using a simple program created by the Winaero website. Follow the below instructions to remove Cortana.

1. First of all, download the Uninstall Cortana from the link.
2. After downloading, extract the files.
3. Now, you will see a file namely Uninstall Cortana.cmd. Right-click the file and select “Run as Administrator“.
   
4. Now, a command prompt window will pop up. You have to do nothing here other than waiting for the process to complete.
5. After completing the process, restart Windows 10.

That’s all, now the Cortana in your Windows 10 is successfully erased.

If you need an alternate method which could disable Cortana, just follow the simple steps given below.

Note: This will work only for the Windows 10 Pro users. If you are a Windows 10 Home user, jump into the next section.

1. Open the Group Policy Editor by typing gpedit.msc in the search box.
2. Then, navigate to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search.
3. Now, double-click the policy named Allow Cortana.
4. The policy window will appear now. Just click Disable. And that’s it.

You have successfully shut down Cortana in Windows 10 Pro.

If you are a Windows 10 Home user, you have to follow these steps to kill Cortana.

Note: As already mentioned, this is also dangerous because we are going to use the registry for disabling Cortana. So, do it at your own risk.

1. Open the Registry Editor by typing Regedit into the search box.
2. Then on the Registry editor, Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search
3. If there is no folder like “Windows Search,” you have to create it by right-clicking the Windows directory and selecting New > Key. Then, name it Windows Search.
4. Now, select that folder and in the right-hand pane, right-click and select new DWORD and name it AllowCortana.
5. After that, right-click that created key and set the value to “0” (Zero).
6. Sign out or Restart Windows and now you will see the Cortana is replaced by the generic search box.

Now, you know how to disable Cortana in Windows 10. Be cautious and feel free to ask help if needed. We will be here for you.