Cortana Popup Adverts In Action Centre Since Update

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  1. Posts : 70
    windows 10
       #1

    Cortana Popup Adverts In Action Centre Since Update


    Recently I've been having a lot of windows 10 auto updates, (presumably this 'anniversary update' thing).

    Today, whilst minding my own business perusing one of my regular forum pages (in firefox), I had an advert popup in my action centre which opened with the line 'looking for something tasty?.... I can help you with that … blah blah '. It was a cortana thing, and when I clicked, it opened the edge browser on a page loaded with local takeaways. Unrelated to what I was looking at and unsolicited.

    This is fresh off the back of the now daily popups from my antivirus (I changed from AVG to Avast but it’s the same on both ( but at least spamming me about their own product!)

    Anyway, I did a quick search and notice on another page, microsoft has also removed the ability to disable cortana easily in it's local settings in these new updates, which altogether seems a bit insidious.

    Seriously, is this the future?

    If anyone's come across this and has an idea of the specific code of the update responsible I'd be grateful to know.

    Thanks
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 27,162
    Win11 Pro, Win10 Pro N, Win10 Home, Windows 8.1 Pro, Ubuntu
       #2

    Open the hamburger menu in Cortana, select Notebook, and turn of any options you do not want Cortana showing.
    Cortana Popup Adverts In Action Centre Since Update-image-002.png
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 70
    windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Cliff S said:
    Open the hamburger menu in Cortana, select Notebook, and turn of any options you do not want Cortana showing.

    When I click on that hamburger it shows I'm not 'signed in'. I've never signed in to it before. I've only used cortana on the odd accasion as a search function to locate stuff on my PC. I don't think I want to limit what it shows me per se, I just want it to not out of the blue start spamming me with restaurant suggestions, when I haven't instigated it's use. Really I just want it to be an unobtrusive tool at my disposal, as it was before the updates.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 68,655
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       #4

    Hello ouroboros72, :)

    Turning off Cortana taskbar tidbits may stop this for you.

    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...dows-10-a.html
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 70
    windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Brink said:
    Hello ouroboros72, :)

    Turning off Cortana taskbar tidbits may stop this for you.

    https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3...dows-10-a.html

    Ok that's worth a try. Tidbits was turned on, so maybe its something to do with that. I might have been jumping the gun blaming it on the updates, but I hadn't had it before.

    I'll turn tidbits off and monitor.

    Thanks for the replies guys.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 70
    windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Well, unfortunately turning off tidbits didn't solve the issue. Cortana is definately still hassling me on a daily basis now for some reason. Today's message was;


    "Texting and email, no typing required. Tell me what you want me to say and I'll write it up for you. I can even send texts from your pc"


    Yesterday it wanted to get involved in managing my friends, and before that my calendar.


    The only thing it doesn't seem to want to get involved in is helping me to get it to shut up!

      My Computer


  7. Posts : 70
    windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #7

    In hindsight I think I might have been a muppet and didn't restart after setting tidbits to off. Pretty sure it did solve the issue. I'm gonna mark this as solved. Thanks again guys.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 2,297
    Windows 10 Pro (64 bit)
       #8

    I've got the opposite. Tidbits are turned on for me but I don't get those pop ups in the notification centre from cortana. Well they do on one machine but not on the other. Not bothered but it's another case of unpredictable behaviour from Windows 10. You never quite know what your going to get!
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 70
    windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Scottyboy99 said:
    I've got the opposite. Tidbits are turned on for me but I don't get those pop ups in the notification centre from cortana. Well they do on one machine but not on the other. Not bothered but it's another case of unpredictable behaviour from Windows 10. You never quite know what your going to get!


    Yeah, it's weird, it does seem to all be a bit of a law unto itself. As I say, I didn't hear a lot from Cortana (with tidbits turned on) until recently, around about the time a batch of updates started coming through. Then all of a sudden it started piping up on a daily basis. So whether there was something in the updates that made Cortana a bit more lively or it was just coincidence I'm not sure. But the fact the updates also removed the facility to easily turn it off in the local settings makes me wonder.








      My Computer


  10. Posts : 11,247
    Windows / Linux : Arch Linux
       #10

    Hi there

    Can't understand the bit about Cortana -- I've never used it and it certainly doesn't even show on my system (Win 10 pro X-64 - GB edition) as I've set it to hidden.

    Seems easy enough to get rid of it.

    Cortana Popup Adverts In Action Centre Since Update-desk.png

    Cheers
    jimbo
      My Computer


 

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