How to Use Cortana to Shutdown Windows 10

Cortana is a digital assistant bundled with Windows 10. You can ask Cortana to look up information using your speech. The Redmond software giant added a number of new features for Cortana in the upcoming Fall Creators Update. One of them is the ability to restart, shut down, lock your PC and sign out from your user account.

Starting with Windows 10 Build 16251, you have the ability to use Cortana to turn off, restart, lock, or sign out of Windows. Microsoft describes it as follows:

While previously announced, we haven’t fully enabled it via the cloud until now. So, in case your hands are busy at the moment, you don’t have to stop what you’re doing to turn off or lock your PC. Instead, you can say “Hey Cortana, turn off my PC” and Cortana will take care of it. In a similar fashion, you can use Cortana to restart your computer, sign-out, or lock your PC. Just use your voice and try out the following commands:

“Hey Cortana, restart PC.”
“Hey Cortana, turn off PC.”
“Hey Cortana, sign out.”
“Hey Cortana, lock PC.”

For some of these voice commands, such as the one for turning off your PC, Cortana may ask you for a verbal confirmation. You’ll have to respond to Cortana with a "Yes" to complete the voice command.

In addition, you can also ask Cortana to execute the commands above on the Lock screen, but first you should enable Cortana on the Lock screen if you have not done so already. Here is how it can be done:

How to Enable Cortana on Lock Screen in Windows 10

For now, this feature is only available for English speakers (EN-US, EN-AU, EN-CA, EN-GB and EN-IN). As always, you can get it working in your region by changing it to United States but don't expect it to be available in your language in the near future.

So, what do you think about this feature? Are you excited about it? Tell us in the comments.

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