Changes to Cortana – and home users will lose out

Antus67

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Nov 3, 2019
413
Changes arriving with the Windows 10 201H update
Microsoft is preparing to make major changes to its virtual assistant Cortana, stripping away its smart home skills and transforming it into something that's less like Google Assistant, Siri or Alexa, and more of a simple chatbot to help with everyday tasks like managing your calendar.

As Ars Technica reports, the newly pared-back Cortana is expected to arrive with the launch of Windows 10 20H1, which will be the operating system's first major update this year. Microsoft has yet to announce when this will begin rolling out, but we're expecting it to be within the next few months.

The update will also put strict limitations on who can use Cortana, so only users who are logged into a Microsoft online account, or a school or work account will have access. If you only use a local Windows 10 account, you'll be out of luck.
a blog post announcing the update, corporate vice president of Cortana Andrew Shuman explained that Cortana's focus is becoming narrower, and focusing more on search and productivity.

"The new Cortana experience in Windows 10 features a chat-based UI that gives you the ability to interact with Cortana using your voice or the keyboard," Shuman said.

"For English (United States) users, Cortana will assist you in better managing your schedule and tasks by staying on top of your calendar and focusing on what matters with meeting insights. You can speak or type requests to find people or files, or quickly create or query emails. You can also easily check your calendar, set a reminder, or add to your lists in Microsoft To Do."

While these features sound interesting, they'll only be available to users in the US at first. If you live elsewhere, Cortana will only be able to perform searches using Bing and 'chat' to you until an unspecified time in the future.

If you currently use Cortana to control your smart home devices, there is at least some good news: Microsoft has confirmed to ZDNet that you'll still be able to manage your lights and music with the Cortana apps for iOS and Android (for the time being).

Source: Microsoft is making big changes to Cortana – and home users will lose out
 
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Chigwells

Level 4
Jan 16, 2012
179
Hmm,

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Chuck57

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Oct 22, 2018
433
Never used Cortana. Haven't even tried to use it. If you're going to have a female assistant, real or electronic, you ought to be able to flirt with her/it and she/it ought to flirt back. If it won't, it's just another device, like that paperclip thing MS had many years ago. It's just there taking up space.
 

Sampei Nihira

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Dec 26, 2019
287
Never used Cortana. Haven't even tried to use it. If you're going to have a female assistant, real or electronic, you ought to be able to flirt with her/it and she/it ought to flirt back. If it won't, it's just another device, like that paperclip thing MS had many years ago. It's just there taking up space.

You can remove it with Debotnet:

Immagine.jpg

 

Burrito

Level 24
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May 16, 2018
1,363
Never used Cortana. Haven't even tried to use it. If you're going to have a female assistant, real or electronic, you ought to be able to flirt with her/it and she/it ought to flirt back. If it won't, it's just another device, like that paperclip thing MS had many years ago. It's just there taking up space.

Yeah, I was hoping this post was about Clippy coming back.

Everybody loved Clippy. ;)

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upnorth

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Jul 27, 2015
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TairikuOkami

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Mountainking

Level 3
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Jan 10, 2018
116
Currently removing it would break Windows start menu search I think. I have it disabled. There are many tools that can disable it so disabling is the better option I think.
Removed it and I don't like Windows Search anyways. I have been using ransack agent (free) forever now and its pinned in my start bar. The capabilities are amazing and its free and does not sit in memory.
 

Chuck57

Level 9
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Well-known
Oct 22, 2018
433
I got rid of Cortana 2 or 3 months ago. Got rid of Win 10 from this machine and went back to Win 8.1 Pro. I've decided the Win 10 latest upgrade was more dangerous than it was worth. I'd rather use something that works, and on which my antique software works.
 

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