Windows 10: Partition question and how do i disable Cortana?

https://i.ibb.co/b37CzhL/20210130-133717.jpg

Hey, so I installed win10 on a new pc.

2 questions

1) I have a 500gb ssd drive as primary. But during the convoluted install process I seem to have created some oddities. I've lost 450 to "recovery partition" and 100 to "healthy efi system" ....

• What are these and can I merge then with primary drive?

2). This pc is only for retro gaming (mame, launch box) and music. It will just run that and do nothing else.

It will only go online for game updates only. I wish to streamline it and make sure it's optimal speed and efficiency. I have tried disabling cortana but nothing works.

• What bloatware / ms spyware or apps i wont need .....and can i remove / disable cortana which I won't be using ?

Thank you for your time

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:)

 

Cortana

Hi,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Community.

Appreciate your efforts to work on this issue.

This issue can occur if some of the system files are not working as expected.

Suggest you to follow the steps from this article to
troubleshoot Cortana on the PC.

Note: Do not go with the ‘Reset PC’ option for now.

Method 1: Follow these steps to disable Cortana:

1. Sign-in to the PC with your Microsoft account.
   
2. In the search box at the bottom, type Disable Cortana.
   
3. Once the suggestions appear in the list, click Cortana & Search settings.
   
4. From the right section of the Settings pane, move the top button to ‘Off’ to disable Cortana from Windows 10.
   

Method 2: Follow these steps to check if that helps.

1. Launch Cortana from the search bar on the taskbar.
   
2. Then, from the left pane click the settings button.
   
3. Under "Cortana" (the first option) and slide the pill switch to the ‘Off’ position.
   

Method 3: Launch the Settings app and click on Privacy. Navigate to Speech, inking, & typing, and click Stop getting to know me. These steps will disable Cortana.

Hope this helps.

Let us know if you got the help you needed.

Regards,

Srimadhwa B

Microsoft Community-Moderator

 

W7 Hard drive partition issue

to get rid of that 100 meg windows partition that setup creates for you on a new install on a blank hdd:

- press shift+f10 when on the partition management screen in setup <-- this opens a command prompt
- diskpart <-- start the windows command line partition management tool
- list disk <--- list the installed hdds in this computer for the next step
- select disk 0 <- might have to replace 0 with the number of the correct disk
- clean <-- this will erase all data on the disk you selected one step up- dont use the wrong disk!
- create partition primary <- creates a primary partition taking up all space on the drive, adjust the command if necessary
- exit, exit to exit diskpart and the command prompt
- click refresh in partition manager and select your newly created partition and install to that

 

Cortana search filter list

I have a lot of space for display content in Cortana search list, and 80% of it not used because Cortana sorting items by types.
How disable all filters and make visible all suggested content?