Windows 10: What Can Cortana Actually Do Now?

I'm trying to work out what Cortana can actually do now. In the screenshots below I asked her to open Word, Calculator, check my calendar & add a reminder, like Cortana says I can, but none of them worked. I either got an error message or a Bing search for how to open the calculator. She is also unable to do things like shut the computer down. Nearly everything I ask her to do gets an error message. At the very least, she should be able to do what she claims to do in the first screenshot.


I have Win10 on two computers both fully up to date. One of them has no options for "Hey Cortana", the other one does. The one that has the voice activation settings works fine when I use the wake word. Why do the two computers have different options?


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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.

 

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

 

How to disable Cortana/Have a search menu that is actually helpful.

Hi,

I realize the inconvenience you are experiencing with Windows 10. I will certainly help you.

I suggest you to turn off Cortana settings.

• Login to Windows 10 computer with your Microsoft account.
• Click on Cortana search bar.
• In the search box at the bottom, type Disable Cortana.
• Once the suggestions appear in the list, click Cortana & Search settings.
• Then turn off Cortana option.

Please get back to us with an update on issue with Windows 10, we will be happy to help.

Thank you.