How to fix Cortana if the Win10 Anniversary Update clobbered it

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Assuming you really want to. InfoWorld Woody on Windows
[See the full post at: How to fix Cortana if the Win10 Anniversary Update clobbered it]

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Thanks for the info Woody although my intentions are to break Cortana myself once we come off of MS-DEFCON 0 for the Anniversary Update. I just wonder if this setting could be used in reverse to break Cortana once the fixed version is out.

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It appears as if that’s exactly the case – but nobody knows if ms will “fix” it at some point in the future.

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Thanks Woody. Like Byron, I’m going to follow the article in reverse in an attempt to kill Cortana completely on my laptops and desktops; the only place I find it useful is on a Windows Phone.

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I had to create a new user account in order to even have those registry entries available to edit.

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Wow, automatic Cortana extermination. Awesome!

But it didn’t happen for me. The “up”grade went smoothly, as such things go (of course expecting that it would revert many settings, reinstall bunches of stuff I’ve removed, and generally untweak the system).

No problem, though – I have worked out SQL database and PowerShell hijinks to not just block, but EXPUNGE that parasite from Win 10. Good riddance, Cortana!

-Noel

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Has anybody tested various values for this key?
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionSearch and the values:
CortanaCapabilities
CortanaCapabilityFlags

There are other keys which are discussed elsewhere in detail about how to fix Cortana, but the keys which I mentioned appear to set the actual functionality of Cortana.

For CortanaCapabilities I found the values “Location” which seems to not allow web access and act only as a local Search engine very much like it used to be in Windows 7 and “CortanaExperience” which is full functionality.

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I’ve been meaning to try to come up with a powershell script myself to automatically get rid of it myself. I just haven’t gotten around to it.

Ideally I want to launch it from a small app that will also address other Windows 10 problems. I just can’t find the time. Ah, maybe soon.

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Absolutely correct. Together with the other Universal Apps, Cortana is the main reason for delaying Windows 10 adoption on desktops in business.

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Maybe going to the Sound applet in Control Panel, Recording tab and disable all recording devices would keep Cortana from listening. It is not a full solution, rather a quick fix for those interested in Windows 10 but not Cortana.

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