Cortana as a voice assistant can be helpful to find Bing answers more quickly. It will open the search engine page and provide the search results. You need a Microsoft account to use Cortana for email typing, documents etc. To disable Cortana in Windows 11 you can either use Settings or Group Policy Editor.

Due to its poor development and popularity, its integration was very much reduced in Windows 11. In the earlier versions, it was tightly integrated like OneDrive, Skype etc. But many users faced problems with it and it was routed to a separate setting.

Cortana Windows 11

But still to disable Cortana permanently you need to use GPO (Group Policy Editor) and Registry settings. If you would like to uninstall then you need to use the PowerShell commands.

Windows 11 made it easy to disable it quickly and effectively. There is no Cortana icon on the taskbar. Search app is separated from Cortana and improves efficiency and speed of the computer.

To disable Cortana in Windows 11 you can follow these methods.

  1. Settings > Apps > Apps & features >Search Apps for Cortana. Click the 3 vertical dots and Advanced options. Turn off app permissions for Microphone. Background apps permissions – Never. Runs at log-in – OFF for Cortana.
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Disable Cortana Windows 11 Settings
Disable Cortana in Windows 11 using Settings

            This will temporarily disable Cortana on Windows 11. When required, you can enable it again by setting the above options to ON.

  1. Open Task Manager and click on the Startup tab. From the list of apps, right-click on the Cortana app and select the Disable option.
Disable Cortana Windows 11 Task Manager
How to Disable Cortana in Windows 11 using Task Manager

Cortana – Overview

Cortana is a cloud based AI voice assistant which can be used to give voice commands to the computer and dictate in Word, PowerPoint, Outlook etc., Microsoft programs. It was supposed to be helpful to the Windows 10 users to reduce the burden of typing and improve productivity.

Cortana has updated its chat interface. You can type instead of speaking into the microphone. Since it’s a Store app now, you can see more updates in the future.

Cortana On Some Locales
Cortana seen on some locales

But what happened was on the wrong side! Windows users did not like Cortana and had less efficiency. It failed several times to invoke and was required to say “Hey Cortana” every time to start.

Microsoft Store also had a very poor rating for Cortana. It was a failure on part of Microsoft to release the right voice command product. It just had a 1.6/5 star out of 263 ratings in the Store app. It is categorized under Apps > Productivity.

Failures of Cortana App

  1. It cannot answer many of the questions posed by Windows 11 users. It just says “Sorry I can’t help you with that ..”.
  2. It consumes RAM with some updates and slows down PCs on legacy hardware. 
  3. Cortana refuses to close on some systems. Restart is required.
  4. Can’t add system apps like timer, clock, etc .
  5. When the app hears voice through the microphone it activates and refuses to close.
  6. Runs in the background and takes valuable resources.
  7. After upgrading to Windows 11, it opens automatically in between work 3 or 4 times. Need to close it again.
  8. Doesn’t support many native languages and correct results are not displayed.
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How to Disable Cortana in Windows 11 using GPO (Permanently)

Just like in its predecessor OS, you could disable Cortana GPO (group policy editor). For this you need to have administrator rights on the computer.

  1. Click the search icon and type group policy editor. Click on the Edit group policy control panel item. The Local Group Policy Editor window will open.
  2. Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search
  3. Disable all settings related to Cortana. Especially “Allow Cortana”.
Disable Cortana Windows 11 Using Gpo
Disable Cortana in Windows 11 using GPO

This should be set to disable Cortana in Windows 11 throughout your computer.

Disable Cortana Windows 11 using Registry

  1. Type regedit in the Run dialog box or search box.
  2. In the Registry editor follow this path.
  3. Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search
  4. Create the last key “Windows Search” if it’s not available.
  5. Right-click and create a New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
  6. Enter the value as AllowCortana and set the data value to 0.
Disable Cortana In Windows 11 Registry
Disable Cortana in Windows 11 using Registry

This will disable Cortana in Windows 11.

In some cases where Cortana is interfering with the performance of Windows 11 and speed, you would like to uninstall the app.

How to Uninstall Cortana in Windows 11

  1. Enter Powershell in the search box and Run as administrator.
  2. Paste the following command.
  3. Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Remove-AppPackage.
  4. It will completely uninstall Cortana from Windows 11.

This should be done as the last major strike to prevent disturbance of Cortana during work or if it is corrupt. You could also terminate the app and restart it if required.

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