How to completely disable Cortana in Windows 10

No doubt, it worked like charm :) thanks a ton.

This simple fix worked for me also… thanks.

Carknocker – No link rot is a sign of a wasted life.

You rock! Worked great!

Do I also need to do this for Office 2016, OneDrive, and OneNote 2016? What other apps, or tasks, are running in the background that can still be transferring personal data, or analyzing my files? I have turned off all apps, gone to all MS websites and turned off available selections. If I can not completely stop the hidden mining of my computer files, then the only option left is to format the hard-drive and go to Linux. How much of our data has already been mined, analyzed, transferred, and stored?

Houston, we have a problem! Cortona keeps coming back, and with the same file name in “Task Manager.” I have changed the file name in Task Manager 3 times now. Any solutions or explanation?

works well to kill Cortana but this disables the search box too which was actually quite useful but Hey I prefer that to having the annoying Cortana running!
Cheers

Thank you. Your recipe works. Appreciate your help.

After ending the task in task manager, you have to quickly hit the “Try Again” for renaming to .old folder. If you give it a few seconds, cortana starts up again and you cant rename. (Windows 10 [Version 6.3.10586], 1st June 2016)

You are awesome!!! Thanks a million for this!!!

How do I undo this I want search function and Cortana back but cant find the file windows wont let me get into windows sys app.??

I can disable Cortana but lose the “Search the Web and Windows” window I used to have.
How do I get this back?

Does NOT work. After closing the Cortana task in task manager, it relaunches itself about half a second later! Can therefore never rename the Cortana directory.

Shame it does not work after the Sept 2016 update

yeah ! It still works in tuning Cortana off completely but as soon as you do it, Search the web and windows stops working.
Kapil ! Do you have any solution for this . If yes then must reply !

Kapil,

Thanks. It worked to rename. Now hopefully Windows will not change. I am on metered access, and in Asia, so it is even more important, as internet is really slow.

Problem with the latest forced update, it restarts itself so fast you can’t rename the directory fast enouth.

Thank you for this! My laptop was updated today, so I had to kill Cortana (AGAIN!). I’d like to know how to disable Edge too.

It worked!!!! Bless you!

I renamed the folder but I cannot reenable cortana

your my hero

Yes that work but the Search Windows will not work anymore…

Cannot get Cortana file name changed. When I end Cortana in the task manager it reappears immediately and so the try again button does not work.
Who ever thought that Cortana popping up all the time was a good idea needs to get out more. What were they thinking?
How do I get rid of this flippin’ thing?

I heart you!!! THANK YOU!! it works!!

Voice search may be useful on cell phones with their wretched “keyboards”, but it is an unneeded and resource expensive toy on a PC. I do not even use Bing as my primary search engine. Give us back the option to shut this thing off from the settings menu. Just because people at Microsoft may thing it is “cool” is not justification for jamming it down our throats.

To end Cortana in Task Manager, click End Task. It will pop up again, but after repeating this six times, it will finally end and you can change the name.

thx bro that was freaking helpful !

You are my HERO! I have tried for months to stop Cortana from randomly popping up, looked on windows.com, forums, everywhere. Glad I found you! THANK YOU!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Cortana was driving me CRAZY!

I had to use the six kills in task manager AND then also to kill another Cortana background task before I could rename the folder. Hope this finally kills the monster. Thanks Kapil and all.

THANK YOU for helping get rid of this Supremely Annoying App! It popped up 4X while I was trying to read how to kill it! DIE! DIE! DIE!

Cortana’s behavior is similar to a virus I encountered that would restart after being stopped in TaskManager. Your fix here worked like a charm! But the big question is why does MS force this resource hogging crap on us when all it does is makes their OS less responsive? Apple iOS is going in the same direction with “features” that you can’t disable.

I LOVE YOU MAN got some of my memory back by getting rid of that piece of garbage thanks a ton your the best!

Cortana is like a hideous vampire that sucks up all of your memory. I have searched for days to find a solution, and I guess being persistent paid off when I found your site. Thank you Kapil!

Cortana just starts again before I can rename the folder. AARGH

This worked for me in 2016 but now [Ver 1703], I found that renaming the Cortana folder had the side-effect of freezing my Start menu.

It’s now 2017, and Microsoft must have added a “don’t think you can disable Cortana” feature into Windows 10. Cortana WILL NOT close in the Task Manager, and there’s another Cortana background function running.

Any new ideas?

If you’re persistent (and I mean, really persistent!), and keep right clicking/end task for both Cortana and Cortana background function, and you can get them both to ‘end task’ at the same time, you have a split second to switch back to SystemApps and rename the Cortana file. It took several tries, but I finally was fast enough and it seems to be working. Thanks for the tip!

Today is July 15, 2017 and I cannot get it to work. As others have said, Cortana comes right back on instantly. And I didn’t waste time with using a mouse, I just held down on the return key and probably ended up hitting retry about a hundred times. Interestingly enough, I kept removing it from the task bar and it eventually did stop coming back, but I still could not do a rename of the file. I shut everything down and restarted from scratch 3 times, but got the same result each time. Great idea and it was certainly worth a shot. I guess they got wise to it, since it’s been 2 years. Maybe when I have more time I’ll try it in safe-mode???

This is inane. Please fix this. All the hours I lose to updates, I would gladly lose several to get rid of Cortana. It should be a simple toggle. I am also in Asia, and necessarily on a VPN. Talk about a deterrent to buying Microsoft. I have grown to loath Apple, but on some days they look tasty.

agree, Cortana is a virus and won’t remain turned off in task manager, does not work, can not rename, agh!!!!

I just bought a new computer after struggling to work with smartphones and tablets and I cannot get any work done on this computer because of that piece of unspeakable rot. It is obvious that Microsoft knows what a piece of rot this is. I do not have the dexterity and capability to do what you say worked TWO YEARS AGO.

This is insane. I am thinking of getting my money back and just buying another tablet. Anything to get away from this obviously deliberate assault on the average user. What on earth is Microsoft up to?

its October 2017 and it still seems to work. You have to position your windows so the disable and Try Again are very close and within one second you have pressed one and the other. Have video running in the background to help slow things down. Thanks.

@Rob: Agreed, this isn’t something that will be easy for those folks who run EVERYthing in a full-screen window! ;) [TIP: click that Restore Down double-box thingy at the top right of the window,]
Anyway, another tip I find useful when trying to do any two things in different windows VERY fast is if possible, use your pointing device (I use a trackball ;) ) to do one action; and your keyboard to do the other — if you see what I mean? Click your pointing device to End Task, then IMMEDIATELY Alt+Tab to Explorer message box and press Enter to Try Again, and keep fingers crossed that you were fast enough. :)
It’s good of M$ to offer this free reaction test game in Win10, but seriously: Cortana, like the entire fiasco that is the Metro GUI, is a by-product of M$ trying to make Win10 look and work like a Windows Phone — a project which M$ have now killed off. So now, us poor users are burdened with a crappy GUI designed to Sell Apps and a virus-like ‘assistant,’ neither of which add anything whatsoever to the user experience: and in fact detract greatly from it compared to the clean, simple look of Win7. Surely only those with VERY poor eyesight — or touch screen users with fingers like giant marker pens — could benefit in any way from the Fisher-Price Monster Font look of the Metro GUI?

Brill – it worked after several attempts in task manager to tell Cortana to go away – kept restarting! Sorted now, many thanks. Why does MS not allow you to remove Cortana via CPanel?? It’s a hidden app that MS want you to have – after all, MS knows best!

Peter

Tried multiple times – didn’t work for me – still get message that i can’t rename. Tried ending task and then clicking on ‘try again’ and no luck. Also, after ending cortana task multiple times it stopped showing up in task manager but still can’t rename the file – anyone find any other solutions here?

Just worked for me in 2017, lost the search window but rarely used it anyway.
If this was the only way to get people to use Bing (had to Google ‘Bing’ to find out what it was for) then they must realise that no one wants it.

Works perfectly!! Thank you!

Thanks a lot!! finally cortana is gone!

This “simple fix” worked. ROFL. Nerds the lot of you! Simple = Cortana>Settings>Uninstall. But of course you like disenfranchising normal people, so that is not an option. Get more inclusive.

easier to right-click the Cortana folder, go to Properties, then Security tab. Next, click the Advanced button, then proceed to take ownership of the folder and all files and subfolders of Cortana. After you do that, give yourself Full Control of the files and folders (and disable inheritance), and deny everything to Trusted Installer. Then it’s simple to stop the service and prevent Cortana from starting up again.

At last! Thank you so much!

Thank you. That worked – eventually! :-) The system was running so quickly that Cortana kept restarting before I could hit “Try Again”. Eventually I was just quick enough! :-))

Genius! Thank you.

So the principle is to rename the Cortana folder (while the system is not looking)
Would it not also work to spin up a copy of TAILS, (live system), navigate to the folder and rename it from there? Windows would not be operating, and when you boot up, the effect would be the same.

Of course, creating the restore point is still prudent.

All that happened was the start menu popped up and began blinking on and off rapidly. No use – I’m installing Linux. I can’t tolerate all the interruptions. Microsoft just lost me.
Cortana is ridiculous – and completely useless.

If I have a Win-10 license is no longer legal to downgrade to Win-7 to get away from Cortana, OneDrive, and whatever else Microsoft screwed up?

What happens if I just block Microsoft’s domain with the Firewall?
The block can be removed one-in-a-while to check for updates.

Bloody hell, and, I thought Clippy was bad…
HOPEFULLY this fix is perm.
Took quite a few shots to get cortana disabled long enough to rename.
Much appreciated.

Matt

I took ownership of the folder, renamed the Cortana Background Host successfully, but the Cortana Folder itself won’t let me rename it. Ending the task once resets it, and any subsequent attempt give this message:
Unable to terminate process
The operation could not be completed.
The operation is not valid for this process.

It worked before, Cortana came back from the grave after I had to reset some things, and I still have the original renamed folder and a new OEM folder. I was able to rename the new Edge, Cloud and Lock screen folders again, but Cortana is one stubborn *****…

i had the problem where it keep launching back after i end task so i cant rename so you need to end task one by one under cortana and then press try again fast if this didn’t work try safe mod

Worked great…THANKS a Ton. 25May2019

Thank you, Kapil Arya, at last someone provided a solution that actually works!! Thank you.

Could you PLEASE give some tips somewhere on one other Windows problem – whenever I save or open a file, I see the dialog box but it shows “Working on it…” for ages before it allows me to save or open the file. I’ve tried every fix I can find on the Internet but none of them work.

its 2020 March 05.. method still works… just have to jam it. kill process and quickly press retry, kill process and retry , repeat until you catch a gap where cortana tries to reload but rename it before it does.

Wow, it worked! You have to be quick and have both windows open side by side so you can get a quick jump!

Thanks big time!

This worked thanks!!!

with new pc came this annoying behemoth that refuses to go tf away!!!! Every 3 seconds this pos comes up!!! None of these fixes works!!! Like a bad penny…wont go away.