Advertisement

Disable Cortana in Windows 10 Anniversary Update version 1607

Cortana is a digital assistant bundled with Windows 10. You can control it using voice commands or type into its search box to find various information from the web or automate certain tasks on your computer. If you do not plan to use Cortana, then you can be surprised that the option to disable Cortana has disappeared in Windows 10 Anniversary Update version 1607.

cortana logo bannerIn Windows 10 Anniversary Update RTM, Microsoft has removed the option to disable Cortana. In the previous release of Windows 10, which is known as 'version 1511' or 'Threshold 2', the user could click the gear icon in Cortana and quickly disable it:

Windows 10 build 10586 disable cortana

In its place are other options. It can't be disabled from the Settings app either:Windows 10 build 14393 no disable cortana option

There is still a way to disable Cortana with a Registry tweak.

Disable Cortana in Windows 10 Anniversary Update version 1607

Do it as follows:

  1. Open Registry Editor.
  2. Go to the following Registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search

    Tip: You can access any desired Registry key with one click. If you don't have such a key, then just create it.create windows search key

  3. Create a new 32-bit DWORD value here named AllowCortana and leave its value data as 0. Note: Even if you are running Windows 10 64-bit, you need to create a 32-bit DWORD value.Windows 10 anniversary update disable cortana Windows 10 version 1607 disable cortana

Now, restart Windows 10 and you are done.

Also, you can use Winaero Tweaker to disable Cortana:

disable cortana
You might also be interested in disabling web search in Windows 10.

Support us

Winaero greatly relies on your support. You can help the site keep bringing you interesting and useful content and software by using these options:

If you like this article, please share it using the buttons below. It won't take a lot from you, but it will help us grow. Thanks for your support!

Advertisеment

Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

18 thoughts on “Disable Cortana in Windows 10 Anniversary Update version 1607”

    1. Cortana’s region lock is reportedly gone with the Anniv. Update, so people anywhere can use ‘her’ with any supported language I guess.

  1. So far I was happy just turning that option off in Win10 10240 RTM and 1511 TH2, but if this continues and MS disables the registry method too, I suppose I’ll have to use one of the drastic unsupported methods to uninstall Cortana completely. Shame that MS continues to shove stuff down people’s throats without leaving even the option to turn it off. >:(

  2. Cortana should be (or must be?) removed by deleting all of its endless DCOM objects from registry.
    I did it for myself. So have no it anymore :)

  3. I have 1607 and there’s no ‘Windows Search’ key under Windows in my registry. Is there a way to disable her without downloading third party software?

  4. It looks like in the most recent update which just installed on my pc today, that Cortana is back and even though I have the “disable Cortana” box checked in Winaero Tweaker, Cortana is still running on my system and cannot be turned off. Interestingly enough all my windows settings including things like “allow apps to use my camera” which I previously had turned off, are now turned back on. Everything seems to have gone back to the default setting of sharing everything Microsoft wants. Incredibly frustrating stuff.

  5. Thank you for this guide!!! I could not find the setting anymore after getting a new machine with the Anniversary update pre-installed.

  6. La désactivation ne fonctionne pas (plus ?). Je pense que ça vient du fait que le chemin jusqu’à windows a changé : le niveau “stratégies” n’existe plus. Puis dans “Windows search” je ne sais pas ni quoi ni comment faire

  7. Finalement j’ai mis le registre” Allowcortana ” préconisé au niveau Windows Search et aussi au sous-niveau préférence. Pour le moment Cortana est toujours visible dans la liste des tâches, mais semble inactif. A suivre…..

  8. Its better to just uninstall Cortana completely with PowerShell command: Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Remove-AppxPackage
    Note: run it as admin.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

css.php
Using Telegram? Subscribe to the blog channel!
Hello. Add your message here.