How to stop Cortana and Skype host from starting


  1. DHarvey3
    Posts : 4
    Windows 10
       New #1

    How to stop Cortana and Skype host from starting


    Afternoon,

    I have two system services that I would like to disable but they are not listed in the windows 10 service list. The first one is Cortana, which from my understanding has to deal with camera, touchscreens and microphones which I use none of those.

    The second service is Microsoft Skype Host which I do not have Skype installed on my machine so it is just taking up memory and disk space.

    Is there any way to disable these services???

    Thanks in Advance.
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  3. TairikuOkami
    Posts : 5,452
    Windows 11 Home
       New #2

    Cortana is basically Windows Search, so if you do not need it, proceed:

    Take Ownership - Add to Context Menu in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

    Take ownership of this folder and then remove it or just rename SearchUI.exe:
    C:/Windows/SystemApps/Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy
    You will be notified, that it can not be done, just close SearchUI.exe, you will have 2-3 secs before it starts again.

    Not sure about Skype, I have it disabled, uninstall Skype in apps and disable Skype's startup in Autoruns, if it is there.
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  4. DHarvey3
    Posts : 4
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    TairikuOkami,

    Thanks for the reply and help. As far as I can tell, skype is off my machine and the only conclusion that I can come up with is that Skype host was included in a Windows Update (which it appears to have been - an update done on 16 Feb 2016 - Just un-installed.

    Thanks for the directions on terminating Cortana.
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