HOW TO DISABLE CORTANA IN WINDOWS 10

Even though Microsoft's personal, digital assistant Cortana introduced with Windows 10 can prove to be helpful, there are times when you might want to turn it off. If you simply don't plan on using Cortana for some reason or feel like it might be a privacy concern for you, Microsoft provided you with an easy way to disable it for good. Also, they've given us a method to clear all of the personal information Cortana gathered on us as well.

Disabling Cortana

The first thing you'll need to do is open up Cortana. One way to do this is by typing "cortana" in the Windows 10 search bar and selecting the Best Match that appears called Cortana & Search Settings.

Once you do this, you'll simply need to click the indicator to 'Off'.

If it is successfully disabled, you will get a notification telling you so and instructions on how to enable Cortana again, if you decide to.

But wait, you're not done yet!

Deleting Personal Information From Cortana

You now have the option to remove all of the data Cortana may have collected about you to "personalize" your experience. To do this, click on the Manage what Cortana knows about me in the cloud link. You'll then be brought to a web page that shows various categories of personal information that Microsoft has collected about you.

To remove all of the personal information that Cortana has collected, you'll need to click on both Clear buttons under Interests and Other Cortana Data and Personalized Speech, Inking and Typing.

Once you do this, Cortana will be disabled and you have successfully cleared all of the personal information that Cortana has collected on your behalf and sent up to Microsoft.