Windows 10 comes with an obnoxious personal assistant called “Cortana”.

I have no use for it, and I don’t like the privacy issues relating to it.

You can disable Cortana using the methods below.

Method 1: Using PowerShell

Start PowerShell as Administrator. Run:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Remove-AppxPackage

If you a are on a domain-managed computer and not on the domain, you will get this error:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Remove-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage : The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed. (Exception from HRESUL
T: 0x800706FD)
At line:1 char:1
+ Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Remove-AppxPackag ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Get-AppxPackage], COMException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException,Microsoft.Windows.Appx.PackageManager.Comman
ds.GetAppxPackageCommand

If this happens, use the next method using Registry.

Method 2: Using Registry

• Press Win+X
• Click Run
• Type: regedit, click Enter
• In Registry Editor, find the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search
• Right click on the Windows Search folder
• Click New
• Click 32 bit DWORD
• Name the DWORD AllowCortana
• Open the AllowCortana entry and set it to 0.
• Restart Windows.

This will disable Cortana. The Cortana button will not be shown in the Taskbar.

In order to enable Cortana again, either delete the AllowCortana key or set it to 1.