You’ve come to the correct spot if you wish to uninstall Microsoft Cortana, the virtual assistant. The great news is that turning off Microsoft’s digital assistant is rather straightforward, especially as the firm continues to make it less and less common on devices like the finest Windows laptops. Not sure if Microsoft is ceding ground to Alexa, Google Assistant, and (maybe) Siri, however that’s a story for another time. We’re going to go through how to remove Cortana, including instructions for both novice and advanced users. We have here both procedures to install and install Microsoft Cortana.
Microsoft would probably like you to get rid of Cortana virtual assistant by switching to Windows 11, which does not have the virtual assistant by default. Even better, if you or someone you know has Cortana turned on, turning it off is quite straightforward.
However, it appears that Microsoft is not abandoning Cortana. Instead, Cortana is popping up in unexpected places, including Microsoft’s mobile Microsoft 365 applications. So, while you may uninstall Cortana from your PC, it remains appears in Microsoft’s Outlook and Teams applications.
According to Windows Latest, there are two methods to turn off Cortana. You may either disable it from starting up automatically (the simplest option) or uninstall the new Cortana application from Windows 10.
What will you see here?
How to disable Microsoft Cortana in Windows 11?
Although Cortana virtual assistant is deactivated by default in Windows 11, as we’ll discuss below, it is possible to enable it. If you or someone else did something to your computer and you want to get rid of it, you may quickly disable it or say you can uninstall Microsoft Cortana.
We have two options here, the first of which is perhaps the simplest.
Through settings
1. To launch Settings, press Windows + L
2. Out from the left menu, choose Apps.
3. Just on the right menu, choose Apps and Features.
4. Choose Advanced settings from the three dots icon next to Cortana.
5. Toggle the “Run at Log-in” switch to go off.
Through Task manager
Taking Cortana out of your Startup applications is another method to stop it in its tracks.
1. First, from the bottom of the screen, right-click on the Windows Start button.
2. Choose Task Manager.
3. Go to the Startup tab.
4. Right-click Cortana and choose Disable.
How to install Cortana in Windows 11?
After watching how-to uninstall Microsoft Cortana let us see how to install it.
In Windows 11, Cortana is not even enabled by default. But, just for the sake of argument, suppose you want to activate Cortana in Windows 11?
Luckily, it’s rather simple.
1. To launch Settings, press Windows + L.
2. First, from the left menu, choose Apps.
3. Just on the right menu, choose Apps and Features.
4. Choose Advanced settings from the three dots icon next to Cortana.
5. Toggle the “Run at Log-in” to switch it ON.
How to disable Cortana in Windows 10?
- To uninstall Microsoft Cortana follow the below steps:
- 1. Use Ctrl + Shift + Esc shortcut.
- 2. Select the Startup column under Task Manager.
- 3. Choose Cortana.
- 4. Disable is selected.
- 5. After it, forward to the Start menu.
- 6. Cortana may be found under All Apps.
- 7. Cortana should be right-clicked.
- 8. Choose More.
- 9. Select App Settings.
- 10. Switch off the ‘Runs at log-in’ option.
How to uninstall Microsoft Cortana app in Windows 10?
A word of caution: these processes need some experimenting. Create a backup of the system prior you start mucking about with PowerShell. Our top cloud backup options make it simple to safeguard your data.
- 1. Start by typing PowerShell into the Start Menu.
- 2. Right-click over Windows PowerShell and choose Properties.
- 3. ‘Run as administrator’ should be selected.
- 4. Fill in the following phrase (without the ‘ marks): ‘Get-AppxPackage -allusers’.
- 5. Then enter ‘Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Remove-AppxPackage’.
Power users, on the other hand, will have to go much further into the Windows Registry to get rid of Cortana, which is considered riskier for regular users. We propose bypassing that section since it is less required and perhaps risky.
You’ve already turned off Cortana and deleted its app i.e. you have to uninstall Microsoft Cortana. That should give you some additional peace of mind.
Conclusion
By stopping Cortana from sharing everything we do on our own computers back with Microsoft, we may restore some privacy. Remember that before making any registry changes, you should always build a system restore point. Above are the steps to uninstall and install Microsoft Cortana.
