According to Microsoft, Cortana is the world's first digital assistant capable of helping Windows 10 users on many of their daily tasks. For example Cortana can help you search the web or see the weather forecast. The more you train and use Cortana, the more it helps you but also the more it learns about you... So although for some people Cortana is a cool feature, for some others it may cause stability issues and even raise concerns about their personal information and their privacy. There were many users that disabled Cortana but after a Windows 10 update (Anniversary update), Microsoft made things a little more difficult. Anyway let's see how you can disable Microsoft virtual assistant on Windows 10.
Windows 10 Home Edition
If you are a Windows 10 Home user, you will have to use regedit and make some changes in the registry. Editing the registry can be something dangerous for your operating system so better back up first and even create a Restoration point. If you are an experienced user and you feel comfortable, you can use the same technique to disable Cortana in Windows 10 Professional and Enterprise.
Press Windows+R on your keyboard, type regedit into the box and press Enter. Alternatively type regedit into the search box on the Desktop. This will open the Registry Editor. In the left sidebar select:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search
Now double click the value AllowCortana and set the value to 0. Close regedit and restart your computer so that the new setting will take effect. If you want to enable Cortana again change the value 0 to 1.
Windows 10 Professional and Enterprise - The safer way
If you are a Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise user you can use an easier and safer way by using the Local Group Policy Editor. To use the editor you need Admin privileges. Also do not forget to create a System Restore point in case something goes wrong.
Press Windows+R again to launch the group policy editor, type gpedit.msc and finally press Enter. Go to Computer Configuration--> Administrative Templates-->Windows Components-->Search. In the right panel you will see the Allow Cortana value. Double-click and set the option to Disabled.
That was it. Cortana was disabled. You can now close the Local Group Policy Editor and restart your pc so that the new setting will take effect.
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