To disable Cortana in Windows 10, you can follow these steps:
- Open the Cortana settings: Right-click on the taskbar and select “Cortana” from the context menu. If you don’t see “Cortana” in the menu, it’s likely that Cortana has already been disabled on your system.
- Access Cortana settings: In the Cortana settings panel, click on the gear icon to access the settings.
- Turn off Cortana: In the settings, you’ll find an option called “Cortana can give you suggestions, ideas, reminders, alerts, and more.” Toggle the switch to the off position to disable Cortana.
- Disable Cortana web search: Additionally, if you want to disable web searches using Cortana, you can click on the “Search permissions” link in the settings panel. From there, you can toggle off the option that says “Use Cortana even when my device is locked” and “Let Cortana respond to ‘Hey Cortana.'”
- Clear Cortana data (optional): If you want to remove any data that Cortana has stored, you can click on the “Clear” button under the “Clear Cortana data” section in the settings panel.
- Disable Cortana from the taskbar: If you prefer not to see the Cortana icon on the taskbar, right-click on an empty space on the taskbar, go to “Cortana,” and select “Hidden” or “Show Cortana icon” to hide or show the Cortana icon, respectively.
After completing these steps, Cortana will be disabled on your Windows 10 system. Keep in mind that disabling Cortana will prevent you from using its voice assistant features and some integrated search functionalities.