How to enable Cortana on a local account?

Kevin2161 said:

Hi There,
I am trying to set up Windows 10 Cortana. 1. You sign in to your Microsoft account, 2. Then, it asks you to enter your "Old Password" one last time. I have tried for hours, putting in every old password i ever used for my Microsoft account. I get "Red lettering" (which if I see one more time?) saying wrong password. Would someone please explain to me step by step how the heck I use Windows 10 Highly advertised "Cortan". Thank you for anyone's help in this matter. Thank You, Kevin2161

Kevin, it turns out that the "old password" refers to your Windows user password, not a Microsoft account password. In an effort to get people to create/use Microsoft accounts, Microsoft wants you to abandon logging into Windows with your Windows username and password, and instead use your Microsoft account username and password. Thus, if you're still using your Windows username and password to log into Windows, you'll have to enter this as the "old password" when enabling Cortana. The reason they call it the "old password" (while not telling you which password!) is that in addition to enabling Cortana, it will secretly in the background change your Windows logon to require your Microsoft account info instead of your "old" logon info.

Once I got through this, Cortana worked. I tried it out for a couple of hours, found it worthless, and completely removed it from my system (which is also not straightforward; there's another thread devoted to that).

Lothar said:

Wait.. you guys mean to say one cannot even use Cortanna without being signed into a Microsoft account?

Seems that way. I guess since Cortana is meant to be cross-platform, it has to store all your information (schedule, browsing habits, etc.) in "the cloud" (and by "the cloud" I mean the servers of Microsoft's marketing department). That way if you set an alarm while at work, it will be on your home computer later.

My experience with Cortana is that for most of what I asked it would just open a browser window to the Bing entry on the topic. Which is why I deleted it.

Kevin2161 said:

Hi There,
I am trying to set up Windows 10 Cortana. 1. You sign in to your Microsoft account, 2. Then, it asks you to enter your "Old Password" one last time. I have tried for hours, putting in every old password i ever used for my Microsoft account. I get "Red lettering" (which if I see one more time?) saying wrong password. Would someone please explain to me step by step how the heck I use Windows 10 Highly advertised "Cortan". Thank you for anyone's help in this matter. Thank You, Kevin2161

The "Old Password" is the password to your local account. It is about to change your local account to a Microsoft Account. If you don't mind this, then enter your local account password. If you think this is overly intrusive of Microsoft, don't do it and let Cortana die.

This is what I did:
I first went to Search the web and Windows. I gave Cortana my name and she instructed me to do a MS account. I created another account and cranked up User Account Control settings to super strict. Then, I logged in to that account, and did the setup. I entered in my info and a UAC prompt came up. I clicked no and voila, I was a semi MS account with Cortana

Apparently, with the big update in November, you will be able to use Cortana with a local account. Some of the people testing the insider previews have already got that facility.

Cornishman said:

Apparently, with the big update in November, you will be able to use Cortana with a local account. Some of the people testing the insider previews have already got that facility.

Yes, Microsoft is apparently getting over themselves and make local accounts act like MS accounts