Disabling Cortana After Windows 10 Anniversary Update August 2016

[Conflix]

Read this thread if you believe that the NSA is listening to you via Cortana.

It is astonishingly easy to disable Cortana (well, not even close to as easy as it should be, Microsoft needs to get it together)

Before you read this thread you should know that we will be changing the Windows registry which can lead to some irreversible problems if you are careless, that said, these are very straight forward instructions, anyone can do it!

 

Step #1:

-Go to the settings for Cortana and disable everything that has to do with Cortana. This step is not necessary but if you believe in being extra careful, do this.

Step #2:

-Enter the windows registry editor by holding down the start menu key and pressing 'r', and then type in 'regedit', press enter and when a dialog box appears, press 'yes'

-In the registry, navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\

-Now that you are at the 'Microsoft' folder, right click the 'Windows' folder and select New>Key, name this key 'Windows Search'

-All you have to do now is right click the 'Windows Search' folder and select New>DWORD (32-bit) Value and, name it 'AllowCortana', now double click it and make sure the value is set to 0, and it's a hexadecimal (not sure if it has to be)

Step #3:

-Finally you are ready to get rid of Cortana, all you need to do is a restart and you will now be back to the good old "Search Windows" bar

*It is important noting that if you want to get Cortana back in the future, it is as easy as navigating back to the 'AllowCortana' file, double clicking it, setting the value to 1. If that fails, just delete it.

 

Microsoft, there is a huge number of people who hate Cortana, just make it easier to disable!

 

I don't check back in here regularly, but when I do I would be happy to answer any questions!

[Photonic]

SpyBot Anti-Beacon gives you the option to block and disable it and it gave me the search button back.

[Conflix]

@PhotonicThat is another option I suppose, however it is a download, and is probably fine but for security freaks who don't want to download things and want to do it on their own, this is an alternative option.

[themctipers]

16 minutes ago, Conflix said:

@PhotonicThat is another option I suppose, however it is a download, and is probably fine but for security freaks who don't want to download things and want to do it on their own, this is an alternative option.

Linux. 

[Conflix]

Just now, themctipers said:

Linux. 

I have a very strong urge to mark that as solved. But I wont.

[themctipers]

Just now, Conflix said:

I have a very strong urge to mark that as solved. But I wont.

Do it :3 

[MysteryManX93]

How-To-Geek made a regedit file that you can use and it does it automatically. Rather convenient actually.

 

http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Disable-Cortana.zip

[handymanshandle]

Eh MS hasn't forced 1607/Redwood 1 on this laptop yet and I'm not going to force it either.

[Conflix]

1 minute ago, wcreek said:

Eh MS hasn't forced 1607/Redwood 1 on this laptop yet and I'm not going to force it either.

 

Well, make sure you have plenty of battery, it is a long update. Also, you have to reconfigure quite a few things once its done, I had to redo my shortcuts and fix my resolution.

[handymanshandle]

Just now, Conflix said:

Well, make sure you have plenty of battery, it is a long update. Also, you have to reconfigure quite a few things once its done, I had to redo my shortcuts and fix my resolution.

Eh like I said not worried about it until it figures out that it has an update available.

Just now, Wedsea040 said:

What does that mean?

1607 is the Version

Redwood 1 is one of the names for the anniversary update.

[Conflix]

1 minute ago, Wedsea040 said:

What does that mean?

That's just the version of Windows, the brand new one that just came out.

 

[DrMacintosh]

I had it disabled before the update....NOW I CANT ENABLE IT! WTF MS

[Conflix]

6 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

I had it disabled before the update....NOW I CANT ENABLE IT! WTF MS

That's odd, the update should have re enabled it, it re enabled Cortana for me which is why I posted this thread.

One thing you could try is to follow the steps and instead of setting AllowCortana to 0, try setting it to 1.