Windows 10: How did I succeed in disabling Cortana?

I have two PCs and a laptop, all om Win10 AU. On the 2 PCs when I click on the search icon I get a popup window that says "Start typing to search for apps, files, and settings" at the top and "Search Windows" at the bottom. That is what I want. On the laptop I get the Cortana crap.

Until a few minutes ago I had not used gpedit to set search settings because I had heard they weren't available as of the AU. I see that the settings do still exist, but they weren't needed on the PCs. I just tried disabling Cortana on the laptop, but the setting was ignored (as I expected).

So how come the laptop behaves differently that the two PCs? There are lots of differences in hardware, drivers, etc., but I don't see how that could change this behavior. The laptop has a microphone and the PCs don't. Is that enough to cause the difference?

I just want the ability to search the local computer. I have no desire to have any software trying to emulate Clippy's sister.

:)

 

"Application download did not succeed"

Every time I try to run any of the following files ("crack", "setup" and "working crack") I get the following message:

"Cannot Start Application"

"Application download did not succeed. Check your network connection, or contact your system administrator or network service provider."

Is it because they're a ClickOnce application? If so, how do I fix it?

Link to files download: MEGA

Error details I get in case it's important:

PLATFORM VERSION INFO

Windows: 10.0.15063.0 (Win32NT)

Common Language Runtime: 4.0.30319.42000

System.Deployment.dll: 4.7.2046.0 built by: NET47REL1

clr.dll: 4.7.2115.0 built by: NET47REL1LAST

dfdll.dll: 4.7.2046.0 built by: NET47REL1

dfshim.dll: 10.0.15063.0 (WinBuild.160101.0800)

SOURCES

Deployment url: file:///C:/Users/David%20Dow/Downloads/crack/crack.application

Deployment Provider url: http://jacobbedig/working crack/working crack.application

ERROR SUMMARY

Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log.

* Activation of C:\Users\David Dow\Downloads\crack\crack.application resulted in exception. Following failure messages were detected:

+ Downloading http://jacobbedig/working crack/working crack.application did not succeed.

+ The remote name could not be resolved: 'jacobbedig'

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY

No transaction error was detected.

WARNINGS

There were no warnings during this operation.

OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS

* [11/29/2017 10:54:14 AM]: Activation of C:\Users\David Dow\Downloads\crack\crack.application has started.

ERROR DETAILS

Following errors were detected during this operation.

* [11/29/2017 10:54:17 AM] System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentDownloadException (Unknown subtype)

- Downloading http://jacobbedig/working crack/working crack.application did not succeed.

- Source: System.Deployment

- Stack trace:

at System.Deployment.Application.SystemNetDownloader.DownloadSingleFile(DownloadQueueItem next)

at System.Deployment.Application.SystemNetDownloader.DownloadAllFiles()

at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.Download(SubscriptionState subState, X509Certificate2 clientCertificate)

at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadManifestAsRawFile(Uri& sourceUri, String targetPath, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options, ServerInformation& serverInformation)

at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestDirect(SubscriptionStore subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options, ServerInformation& serverInformation)

at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.FollowDeploymentProviderUri(SubscriptionStore subStore, AssemblyManifest& deployment, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options)

at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadDeploymentManifestBypass(SubscriptionStore subStore, Uri& sourceUri, TempFile& tempFile, SubscriptionState& subState, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options)

at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl, Uri& deploymentUri)

at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivationWithRetry(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl)

--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown---

at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()

at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivationWithRetry(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl)

at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object state)

--- Inner Exception---

System.Net.WebException

- The remote name could not be resolved: 'jacobbedig'

- Source: System

- Stack trace:

at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()

at System.Deployment.Application.SystemNetDownloader.DownloadSingleFile(DownloadQueueItem next)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS

No transaction information is available.

Moved from: Windows / Windows 10 / Performance & system failures

 

"Application download did not succeed"

Hi Michelle!

"do you have administrator rights on your PC?"

Yes, I have administrator rights to the computer.

"Since when did the issue start?"

Don't know, this is my first ever ClickOnce downloaded from the internet.

"Have you tried launching the same file extensions before successfully?"

Nope.

"Does the PC have other user accounts on it?"

Nope, I'm the only one.

"Clean Boot helps eliminate software conflicts that occur when running
or installing a program in Windows 10."

I just tried Clean Boot because you told me and unfortunately none of them worked.

I would recommend downloading the files I linked so you can test it and may be able to figure out the problem (MEGA).

 

Have you looked through these two tutorials? They might help. If you've already seen them I apologize for wasting your time.

Hey Cortana - Turn On or Off in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

Cortana - Turn On or Off in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

 

Yes, I've seen those tutorials. The "Disable" part doesn't really address my question ... partially because I probably misspoke when I used the term "disable". I just want to get rid of the "personal assistant" part of the search GUI that Microsoft has tried to make act like a person. I don't want Search to ask what it can do for me. I don't want it to give me tips on how to email someone. This is all gratuitous nonsense. Perhaps I should mention that the PCs and laptop all use local accounts, not Microsoft accounts so tutorials dealing with Cortana's interaction with Microsoft servers do not apply to my devices.

 

Have you turned off Taskbar Titbits in Cortana's settings?

 

Very interesting. My wife's laptop is now acting like my 2 PCs - no Cortana in the search. The list of settings containing the Taskbar Tidbits doesn't seem to be available. (If it was displayed before, I'm sure I tried turning it off. I tried turning everything I could find that related to Cortana.) Whatever I did on the PCs I've no done on the laptop. Perhaps a reboot was required implement the changes ... whatever they were. So now I've achieved what I was trying to achieve on 3 devices without having any idea how I did it. :-(

 

It'll most likely be back on the next upgrade... MS really wants you to have it...!

For me, I only see Cortana if I press Windows key + S, Windows key + Q; otherwise it's using about 60Mb of RAM.

I use Classic Shell as my start menu, which has a highly configurable search box... covers a lot of the same areas as Cortana, but you can select which you want searched and which not.

That includes Apps, the Start Menu, the internet, Settings, files and folders. It just works. And only uses 2.4Mb.
Ok, no tiles, it doesn't tell jokes, or handle the news or weather... and no voice activation. Oh, I'm so disappointed...*Biggrin