How Do I Cut Down the Memory Use by CORTANA?

Bigfoot · 27 Mar 2017

I'd like to cut down the memory used by Cortana, I don't like or use Cortana but find that it's using a large amount of memory on my computer (windows 10 HP). The memory is 63.3 MB. I'm reading an article in the newspaper where you can decrease that memory almost completely and therefore increase the speed of your computer.

I have all the simple things turned off with Cortana, but its still active. They said to find the key to make changes. This is what I typed in the cortana search box, and it just led me to online results.

HKLM\software\policies\microsoft\windows\windows search

This is the article they said to follow, but I don't know much about computers and I wish this could be done in the simplest way possible. I don't want to uninstall, but would like to cut down on the memory used.

Windows 10 tip: Turn off Cortana completely | ZDNet

cereberus · 27 Mar 2017

63.3 MB - that is tiny unless you have say a 1GB tablet!

You will barely notice the difference at all!

Messing around with Cortana is more likely to break things (she is a tough lady

).

TairikuOkami · 27 Mar 2017

You can not, I used to remove Cortana (SearchUI), but in CU, it is part of Start, without it, Start does not work.

If Start is not active, it is dormant, but still takes about 40MB. You might try CleanMem to free some RAM.

LMiller7 · 27 Mar 2017

There is a rather popular misconception that the more memory a computer uses the slower it will be. The opposite is true. As a general rule the more memory used the better will be performance. The exception being when high usage causes a shortage and there is no evidence of that. If your computer has a reasonable amount of memory even reducing that 63.5MB to zero would have no measurable effect on performance.

Windows 10 has no need for and will not benefit from third party memory optimizers, managers, etc. The only dubious benefit is to make the numbers in Task Manager look better to those who do not understand what they mean.

Bigfoot · 27 Mar 2017

Thanks for your replies, this is the article I read this morning. If Windows 10's Cortana is slowing down your PC, here's how to limit its stranglehold

TairikuOkami · 28 Mar 2017

Nevermind, it seems that Start still works now, even after removing Cortana, it was probably fixed in CU.

To restore run: "sfc /scannow" or backup the whole folder.

Code:

takeown /f "%WinDir%\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy" /a /r /d y
icacls "%WinDir%\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy" /inheritance:r /grant:r Administrators:(OI)(CI)F /t /c
taskkill /im SearchUI.exe /f
rd "%WinDir%\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy" /s /q

dalchina · 28 Mar 2017

Cortana shouldn't be using disk, internet or CPU resources. Just some RAM - and not very much as has been observed. So I can't see why sluggishness could be attributed to that.