Windows 10: Enable or Disable Cortana in Windows 10

Hello sr3tlaw, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

I'm afraid that I don't have any experience with domain policies to say for sure. Hopefully someone that does may be able to help.

 

All policies are set in the Registry. GPEdit is only a graphical means of addressing the registry to easily and safely disable or enable preconceived policies.

If your registry, and especially external (internet) search, is working independently of the main computer (one that is controlling yours probably at the router level), then you can address Cortana through the registry by creating the same rules GPEdit does.

In the anniversary update Cortana continues to guzzle up around 35 MB of your RAM regardless of disabling it. You have to completely remove the Cortana package to save wastage of your precious RAM and the consequence of that is that your computer loses the ability to internally search your own computer. You can however, circumvent that to some extent by using Run (WinKey+R) function or completely by installing the "Windows 7 Start Application".

Best regards,

 

A Windows PC joined to a domain (notice the precise lingo; "joined") will apply Group Policy in the following sequence;

Local, then Site-linked, then Domain-linked, then OU-linked.

So it seems probable to me that your GPO settings applied to Local Group Policy are being overridden by GPOs defined on the domain controllers and linked to the site, domain, or OU.

Try this;

right-click the Start button, launch Command Prompt (admin)
run the rsop.msc command (Resultant Set Of Policy management console)

another option is gpresult;

gpresult /user UserName /v

you can use the /h option of gpresult to output an HTML report for easier viewing.

Group Policy is uber powerful and uber complex. To correct some incorrect info;

Local Group Policy Objects

"The local Group Policy object is stored in %systemroot%\System32\GroupPolicy, blah blah blah"

and

"The local Group Policy object Gpt.ini file contains the following information blah blah blah"

if you fire up Windows Explorer in Win10, you'll find the C:\Windows\system32\GroupPolicy folder, inside of which is the GPT.ini file, and two subfolders.

 

I did use the Registry option, I have no GP on my W10 Home Ed.

However, for 64bit OS, I did change additionally this:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search

The SearchUI will not display any result for a Search, if there is not Internet Connection or if certain IP Addressees are Blocked in Router, in Settings it is even showing a error :

 

Hello Adalwar, *Smile

Setting the additional registry setting may be the issue since that is not changed by the group policy.

 

Hello Brink,
Thank you.

I remove the additional setting and nothing has changed. So, that setting is not doing anything. I think it was necessary in a previous W10 version in order to stop Cortana.

About the Search Results not showing up, it is because of the Blocked IP´s I have activated in Router.

I am happy not having Cortana around, for me it is nerving .

 

If you haven't already, restart the computer after removing that extra registry entry to fully apply.

Are you still able to search from the Start menu, File Explorer, or Search icon on taskbar?

 

Sorry for the Delay, I had to go away.

Search within File Explorer always work with no complain.
Search, from WIN+S or TaskBar or Start Menu only works when there is a unblocked Internet Connection. After Search has done his "First Call Home", it is working normally, even without Internet.
Search within Settings is not working (see picture previous Post). If I disable Windows Search in Services, the message changes to "No items found for ......".

 

That would be normal if you disable the "Windows Search" service.

I'm not sure why it's not searching without an Internet connection though since mine still will.

 

Did you reboot with Internet Disconnect and tried it?
As I have a Router with Blocked IP´s, when I reboot there is no connection to MS and Search is also not working. Only after I unblock the "Line" it is working again until next reboot.
Now , I can not follow why Search is not working in Settings.

 

Just tested with Internet disabled and restart, and it still searched with Cortana disabled.

Usually, it should just search your local computer without an Internet connection.

 

It is curious.
For me, it will only way to have it working is when I have direct connection to Internet. With Blocked IP´s , no way.
Can it be because I have 3 Display Languages Installed? I can not believe on this

 

Multiple languages shouldn't affect it. Even blocked IP's shouldn't matter.

If the "Windows Search" service is disabled, that would prevent it from searching.

 

Windows Search is all the time enabled. I only deactivated it for testing purposes.
The only difference is in Settings Search, changing the error message.
Seems there is something wrong with my Windows , but I just finished to do a In-Place Upgrade and an update to KB-351.
I

 

May need to go the clean install route. *Sad