Windows 10: Turn off or uninstall Cortana

MS keeps telling me I can't uninstall or permanently disable Cortana - an application I do not need, never asked to install. But even if I tell it to go be quiet and stop trying to interfere in my life, sooner or later it pops up in the middle of working on something, telling me it can do it all for me. It is said it is so deeply integrated into the OS that it can't be removed. A really poor architecture decision from a security POV, and I thought MS had gotten so much smarter about security since the Sasser Worm. Yet they note that the education editions of Win 10 do NOT have Cortana installed. So why on earth can't I uninstall it on my own machines, rather that leaving a potential security hole that I have no info on how it works. I disable the service - it re-enables itself! There's no uninstall option, and though I've uninstalled many things by brute force, if it is truly such an essential part of the OS, I might be shooting myself in the foot to do it by brute force (removing the binaries).

:)

 

Turning Cortana Back On

Hi,

Thank you for posting in Community.

We understand your concern and we will provide the assistance required to help you resolve the issue.

Before we proceed, I would like you to provide the information stated below:

• What happens when you try to turn it on?
• Do you get any error message when your trying to turn it on?
• Did you make any changes to your computer after you turned Cortana Off?

For now, I would suggest that follow the steps below and check if you are able to start Cortana.

• Go Settings, Time & Language, Speech, Speech, inking, & typing
  privacy settings.
• Get to know me - turns Cortana on

Hope this helps

 

Cortana Notebook

In order to enable the Notebook icon in Cortana, I suggest you to check if you have enabled Cortana.

To enable Cortana, please follow the steps below:

• Go to Cortana.
• Go to Settings.
• Turn on “Cortana can give you suggestions, ideas, reminders, alerts”.

Hope this helps.

 

Can't turn on Cortanas mic

Hi Will,

Wrong configuration settings may be one of the possible reason why you're unable to enable Cortana's microphone. To efficiently assist you, kindly answer the following:

• Are you getting any error messages when you tried to turn on Cortana's microphone?
• What troubleshooting steps have you done so far?

In the meantime, we suggest that you follow the steps shared by Rasec_007 on this
thread on how to enable the Cortana's microphone.

Keep us posted if you need additional help.