After the anniversary update Cortana won’t have an ‘off’ switch because the structure of Cortana has been changed and now it has also going to be used in iOS and Android based smartphones. there is one things that gives relief that you can log off Cortana at any point of time and delete its search history as well. You need to link your Microsoft account first to use Cortana in your Windows 10 desktop and mobile phone. The PC search and Bing search engine will also be renamed as Cortana. With the Anniversary update Microsoft is expending regions so that the Cortana can be used by more people across the globe. Here in this article we will provide information about ‘how to turn this feature off’ for those viewers who till don’t want to use it.
How to Log Out Coratana in Windows 10 Anniversary Update
Yes, after the Anniversary Update it would be possible to do so, you need to follow these steps.
- Select ‘Notebook’ from the Start Menu
- First option under Notebook would be ‘About Me’, select that
- Choose your ‘Account’
- Select ‘Sign out’
After this Cortana will turn into the common search engine and web without having any connection with your Microsoft account. Don’t forget that signing out is not turning off Cortana complete, and after signing out you can use Cortana for non-personalized searches.
You can opt-in to personalized Cortana while doing the upgrade and later on hide it from the taskbar and search box to stop general transmit to a distant server of Microsoft. By the way company is no longer providing the plain vanilla search options and you won’t feel much difference between Cortana and computer’s basic search capabilities unless all cloud-connected bits of Windows 10 get turned off.
How to Set limits on Cortana?
You can follow these steps to limit Cortana’s reach to your system. First of all,
- Start > Settings > Privacy > Speech, Inking, & Typing
- Click on Stop Getting to Know Me
- A message that says “This will turn off dictation and clear info on your device that windows uses to make better suggestion for you” will pop up on the screen.
- Click on Turn off.
This change will make Cortana deaf and blind and it won’t be able to hear your voice or capture your typing history and for stylus wielders— handwriting. It will also turn off system-wide dictation. After this you need to do one more thing.
- Click on Cortana on the right side of the taskbar
- Click on the settings cog in the side bar.
- Once you get the Cortana’s settings screen, turn off everything including device history and online search history.
Cortana will still work but this change will prevent tracking and data usage.
How to remove Cortana’s memory of you?
- Go to settings again
- Click on manage what Cortana knows about me in the cloud
- It may ask you to sign in with your Microsoft account to clear the history, do that.
- Click on Clear at the bottom, scroll down if you don’t find it.
This change will ask Microsoft to delete information which is saved about you via Cortana. You can use this option while using Cortana as well if you don’t want it to save your personal information on cloud.
How to Hide Cortana?
- Right-click on the Cortana search
- Select Hidden.
Now Cortana will disappear. You can bring it back by saying ‘Hey Cortana’. You can go to Bing’s search history page and clear history from there. After disabling Cortana completely you can use ‘Everything’ as an alternative. It is easy to use third party tool for those who don’t want to use Cortana and need a File and Folder search. You can also Pin most frequently used apps to the taskbar to memories them and access easily.