How to Disable Cortana Temporarily
If Cortana sometimes activates when you don’t want it to, but you still want to be able to activate it manually, the first step is to make sure that Cortana won’t respond to your voice: For most users, disabling Cortana’s ability to automatically respond to a voice command or a keyboard shortcut is enough. This will prevent Cortana from ever activating accidentally, but it won’t affect your search experience, and everything will continue to operate as normal.
How to Disable Cortana Permanently Using the Windows Registry
Cortana is heavily integrated into the Windows 10 search functionality, so fully disabling it may impact your user experience. Nonetheless, users of Windows 10 Home Edition can disable Cortana with the Registry Editor tool. Users of Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise can use either the Registry Editor or the Group Policy Manager. After you’ve created a system restore point, and you’re absolutely sure you want to disable Cortana permanently, then you will need to open the Registry Editor:
How to Disable Cortana Permanently in Group Policy Editor
While Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise users can disable Cortana through the Registry Editor, they have another option that’s a little safer. To turn off Cortana using the Group Policy Editor:
How to Turn Cortana Back on If You Disabled It via Regedit
If you change your mind about disabling Cortana, or if something goes wrong, the easiest way to turn Cortana back on is to use a system restore point. You can also try going back into the Registry Editor and deleting the AllowCortana file you created.
How to Prevent Cortana From Recording and Storing Your Search Habits and History
Some users have privacy concerns about Cortana and Microsoft keeping track of their search histories and habits in the cloud. Completely disabling Cortana is one way to deal with this concern, or you can turn off each setting that allows Cortana to record and store information about you: Cortana will remain installed on your computer, but it will not be able to gather information, report information to Microsoft, or interact with you in any way. If you wish to use Cortana in the future, change all of the settings back to the On position.
