How to uninstall Cortana after the May 2020 update

For heavy Cortana users, the May 2020 update turned the voice assistant into a productivity app. Although you can still control certain things with your voice, many users prefer to simply uninstall Cortana.

Microsoft made this almost impossible, with most users simply choosing to turn the icon off and hide it. You can now uninstall Cortana if you no longer find it useful. If you change your mind, there is also an easy way to reinstall it.

Is it safe?

Since Cortana is built into Windows 10, you may have heard that deleting a main Windows component is dangerous. However, Windows works fine without Cortana, even before the May 2020 update.

Cortana is no longer integrated into Windows as it was before. This makes uninstalling Cortana safer than ever without harming your system. If you have concerns, back up your files before continuing.

Uninstall Cortana

Even if Cortana is now an application, you cannot uninstall it from the usual “Add and Remove Programs” area. Before that, you need to edit the registry in Windows 10 Home. In Windows 10 Pro, you can use the Group Policy Editor. As you can see, it was not the easiest thing to do, especially if you changed the registry.

Now you just need to use PowerShell. If you’ve never used it before, don’t worry – it’s not complicated.

Click Start and type “PowerShell”. Choose the Windows PowerShell application.

If you do not have administrator rights for your user account, right-click PowerShell in the results and choose “Run as administrator”. Press Yes if you receive a UAC (User Access Control) warning.

If you’ve ever used the command prompt, PowerShell looks and works similarly.

Then type or copy and paste the following line into the prompt:

Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Remove-AppxPackage

Do not add or remove any of the spaces. After typing it, press Enter on your keyboard. This will uninstall Cortana. Please note that this will only work if you have already installed the May 2020 Windows update. Otherwise, you will still have the older version of Cortana, which is much more difficult to remove.

Reinstall Cortana

If you change your mind, Cortana is not gone forever. You can decide that the new version is not that bad after all. If this is the case, you can reinstall Cortana at any time. Just open the Microsoft Store.

Search for “Cortana”. Select the first result.

Click “Install” to install Cortana. You will need to log in with your Microsoft account to download the application.

Keep Cortana but deactivate

If you don’t want to uninstall Cortana, but you’re not sure if you want to use the app, you can just turn it off. It works the same way you would have disabled Cortana initially if you didn’t use it.

hurry Ctrl + Offset + Esc to open Task Manager. Open the Startup tab.

Select Cortana from the list. Once highlighted, click the “Disable” button in the lower right corner. This prevents Cortana from starting when your PC starts.

To let the changes take effect, restart your computer. When it starts, Cortana does not start this time or at any other time, unless you reactivate the process. You can also delete the Cortana log if you no longer intend to use it.

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