Few would deny that Cortana has seen better days. Things aren’t going quite so well for her. And have been for some time. But with the Windows 10 May 2020 Update, she is making a new start.
A new start in the form of a dedicated app that offers a more focused usage experience.
Microsoft has been reducing the prevalence of Cortana lately, turning her from its digital assistant into more of something that can be termed as software integrations across its range of products and services.
As part of that move, Cortana was removed from Android, iOS and Xbox One recently. And the company also reintroduced her to Windows 10 users with version 2004 in the form of a separate application.
Thankfully, and finally, the software titan now also provides for an easy way to remove Cortana completely from Windows 10. That’s because previously the voice assistant was tied to Windows Search, meaning even if you managed to remove Cortana it would most likely break Search as well.
Now, why would you not want Cortana on Windows 10?
There are countless reasons why. Perhaps you are not a fan? Or don’t like the recent changes? Or maybe you are encountering issues with the voice assistant in this latest release? Or how about the fact that Cortana is currently limited to just a handful of countries?
Whatever the reason may be, you can now run a simple PowerShell script to uninstall Cortana.
- Open Start Menu.
- Type PowerShell and start it.
- In the console window, type Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Remove-AppxPackage.
- Hit the Enter
This should uninstall Cortana from your system.
For the record, Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 is the package name of Cortana.
If you only removed Cortana temporarily, for troubleshooting perhaps, and want to install it back, then that process couldn’t be easier.
Open Microsoft Store and search for it there, or simply click on this link to install Cortana. The app will take a few moments to download, and will install the digital assistant right back into Windows 10. You can then launch it by clicking its icon on the taskbar.
Ensure that you have the Show Cortana button option checked in the taskbar by right-clicking.
