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You Can't Turn Off Cortana In the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (pcworld.com)
Microsoft will release Windows 10 Anniversary Update next week. Earlier this week we listed some of its best features. PCWorld is now reporting about a major change that may annoy some users: once you've installed the update, Cortana can no longer be disabled. From the article: Cortana, the personal digital assistant that replaced Windows 10's search function and taps into Bing's servers to answer your queries with contextual awareness, no longer has an off switch. The impact on you at home: Similar to how Microsoft blocked Google compatibility with Cortana, the company is now cutting off the plain vanilla search option. That actually makes a certain of amount of sense. Unless you turned off all the various cloud-connected bits of Windows 10, there's not a ton of difference between Cortana and the operating system's basic search capabilities.
Courtesy Martin Brinkmann
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/26/you-will-use-cortana-says-microsoft/
That's it. That's all that we need. If we could somehow figure out a way to get a good gaming experience on Linux then the fabled Year of the Linux Desktop(tm) would manifest in reality.
Windows would be relegated to the office (and even that can change since more and more apps are web based) and we would finally be free.
or install Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB, which got none of this nonsense.
Easier said than done, Microsoft doesn't sell Windows Enterprise off the shelf. You have to negotiate a licensing plan with them.
In some ways this is more honest, it's been demonstrated that the OS will talk to 107 domains whether or not some switches are toggled in the Control Panel to give the illusion of privacy.
Any list of those so I can set them to 127.0.0.1 in my Hosts file?
Here you go: https://github.com/WindowsLies...
However it won't work because Windows bypasses its own hosts file for its own purposes. You'll have to block it from your router or other external firewall.
If you don't like Cortana, you can make it go away and never use it.
From TFA: Microsoft told PCWorld. "If you like, you can also easily hide Cortana and the search box in the taskbar altogether."
Cortana is simply a browser searchbar that uses Bing, re-located to the taskbar, and can talk. Siri reaches out to Apple servers when you use it, OK Google goes to Google servers. Microsoft is simply playing catch-up. The only news here is you can no longer give Cortana a lobotomy by cutting off its access to Bing.
But to say "Cortana can't be disabled" is inaccurate, misleading FUD. There may be many reasons to shit on Microsoft, but this isn't one of them.
Instructions:
1. change default browser from Edge to anything else... except IE. Be sure your new Browser does not use Bing as its search engine.
2. Right-click on the Taskbar, choose to Hide Cortana.
3. (optional) Install ClassicShell, Start8, or equivalent to provide a convenient basic search functionality.
4. (optional) Still paranoid? Try Spybot Anti-Beacon.
5. Proceed as before. Run Steam or something.
Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
Any list of those so I can set them to 127.0.0.1 in my Hosts file?
That won't help you any, the IP addresses are hard-coded into the OS via dnsapi.dll, which Windows 10 will consult prior to the rest of the resolver stack (hosts, WINS, name servers, etc). You're going to need another machine between you and your internet connection, one with a proper implementation like iptables/ipfw/nftables/etc to drop traffic destined for those IPs.
Of course, the IPs of the telemetry servers are subject to change at Microsoft's whim, so you're going to end up stuck playing whack-a-mole. Me, I'm just not going to install Windows 10.
"If there was a gay Afro-Puertorican Linux distribution, I'd give it a try" ~lucm
I agree. We bought a little Acer E3-111 for my wife with Windows 8.1 awhile back. It worked just fine. We had some problems with the touchpad recently and I figured, why not upgrade to Windows 10. We've both regretted that decision. It run slowly, and every few days there's new reasons on Slashdot and elsewhere not to run Windows 10. A few days ago I booted Linux Mint 18, Mate edition from a USB stick. Firefox (my wife's preffered browser) started so quickly we were startled and everything was very smooth. I looked at the hits on my firewall/proxy server from her IP and they were down to almost nothing. I'll be upgrading her to Linux this weekend.
Not exactly on topic but without BITS ...windows won't update.
As you already know if you simply disable BITS Windows will automatically re-enable it and turn it on again whenever it feels like it.
The solution is to create a user account, disable the user account and then configure BITS service to run as that disabled user. This will cause it to permanently fail. Microsoft isn't yet checking for this.
I would comment further but anything I say would be obvious and repetitive like arguing with Natas over the finer points of running Microsoft.
Yep. You can disable it in the group policy editor if you have pro, or in the registry editor if you don't.
As admin, run this command in one line:
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search" /t REG_DWORD /v "AllowCortana" /d 0 /f
There, no more cortana.
or install Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB, which got none of this nonsense.
Easier said than done, Microsoft doesn't sell Windows Enterprise off the shelf. You have to negotiate a licensing plan with them.
You can't just buy a copy of the Enterprise version of Windows. Running (legally) the Enterprise version of Windows 10 requires you to purchase at least 250 Windows licenses (public sector customers) or 500 licenses (commercial customers).