New
#11
What method did you use? If you end the Cortana process in Task Manager it immediately respawns, exactly like a virus or other form of malware (which Windows 10 is preloaded to the brim with). If you use an elevated Powershell to "uninstall" Cortana (which doesn't truly uninstall anything), it won't do it:
Again, exactly like malware. Whoever originally wrote that error message; did he write the part I placed in bold with a straight face? Did I somehow end up in the Twilight Zone? Since when it is "not possible" to uninstall a non-critical application in an operating system? Of course, if you're writing malware, "impossible to uninstall" is ideal.PS C:\Windows\system32> Remove-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.4.8.176_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewyRemove-AppxPackage : Deployment failed with HRESULT: 0x80073CFA, Removal failed. Please contact your software vendor.(Exception from HRESULT: 0x80073CFA)error 0x80070032: AppX Deployment Remove operation on packageMicrosoft.Windows.Cortana_1.4.8.176_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy from:C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy failed. This app is part of Windows and cannot be uninstalled on a per-user basis. An administrator can attempt to remove the app from the computer using Turn WindowsFeatures on or off. However, it may not be possible to uninstall the app. NOTE: For additional information, look for [ActivityId] c378a2d6-da4a-0000-d8a7-78c34adad001 in the Event Log or usethe command line Get-AppxLog -ActivityID c378a2d6-da4a-0000-d8a7-78c34adad001At line:1 char:1+ Remove-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_1.4.8.176_neutral_neutra ...+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : WriteError: (Microsoft.Windo...l_cw5n1h2txyewy:String) [Remove-AppxPackage], IOException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DeploymentError,Microsoft.Windows.Appx.PackageManager.Commands.RemoveAppxPackageCommand
In any event, I took ownership of the C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy folder, and then I denied everything to "ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES", "SYSTEM", and "TrustedInstaller". That fixed Cortana's wagon. "She" tried to respawn 3 times in a row, each time lasting only a second before being automatically shut down, and then in a last ditch effort she tried to respawn under a different name ("Cortana Background" something or other, instead of just "Cortana"), but she was snuffed out again, and stayed gone:
She's a tenacious little piece of malware, but Microsoft forgot to give her the power to trump NTFS permissions.
To completely remove cortana you need to boot into safe mode then find her folder C:/Windows/SystemApps/Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy and If you never want her again take ownership of the folder and delete, or just delete the file that is running in your task manager, I can't remember what it's called I deleted it.
Beware this also removes your search ability.
It was the first thing I disabled after I upgraded, followed by the Action Center.
By the way, as pointed out previously, removing the Cortana folder also removes the ability to search from the Start menu or the Task bar, but you can still search for files from within any File Explorer window.
You would only need to boot into safe mode if you can't get her to stop running in normal mode. I used NTFS permissions to prevent her from running, so I could delete the whole folder without booting to safe mode (I renamed it instead).
You mean the one on the task bar? I don't care about that one; I hid it as soon as I installed Windows 10. The only search I care about is the standard files and folders search in Explorer, and that still works fine without the "help" of Cortana.Beware this also removes your search ability.