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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.
Challenge accepted!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
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.
I wish Microsoft would've been more up front about this last year, and not two days before the "free" "upgrade" is scheduled to be concluded.
"You Can't Turn Off Cortana In the Windows 10 Anniversary Update"
Of course not- that might interfere with their advertising schemes and the ability to monitor whatever they like in order to better monetize your entire existence.
Welcome to the Brave New World of surveillance, brought to you by the same forward-thinking folks that brought you Windows ME, the Zune, and PlaysForSure.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Why would anyone run this thing? "New, shiny" seems to be the only argument I have heard that has any relationship to reality.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
or install Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB, which got none of this nonsense.
Be or ben't
Courtesy Martin Brinkmann
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/07/26/you-will-use-cortana-says-microsoft/
Does this mean I can finally try out cortana?
Or does it still require login?
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
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.
Switched to Mint, won't upgrade past Win7.
Fuck you, Microsoft.
You want an OS that works your way? Tell ya what - get a bunch of your fellow technically-oriented geek friends together and make your own! (Actually, I'm sure this has been done. I think such systems are called "GNU Linux"?) Otherwise, as long as they don't outright break what they sold you, you can deal with MS's heavy-handed management of your systems. Frankly, with all the moaning about MS security and unpatched MS OS's in the wild, how did everyone expect them to respond? They're still the de facto business OS of choice and their primary customer is extremely security conscious. MS is listening to the bucks, not the users. Since their software is proprietary, that is as it should be. Unless you actively find a way to prevent it, Microsoft pretty much insists on their right to make every licensed MS OS instance reasonably uniform. That way, both security and reliability can theoretically be maximized for the entire user base.
In short - deal with it or run something else. Just don't expect Microsoft to waste any time or money trying to do things your way unless you're big business with big bucks.
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...
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.
Microsoft's revenue depends on OEMs who want to sell the cheapest, shittiest hardware possible. That's why Windows, since the earliest versions, uses your hard drive as additional RAM, constantly swapping things back and forth.
This is a troll, right? Not only were we paging on Unix in days of yore, but the system was so primitive you had to allocate space for your physical memory at the head of the paging file.
I forget when Macs got virtual memory. System 7?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Ask Cortana. She probably knows all the best brands and how to apply them.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
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).
Find a 15 step workaround on reddit
Find the downvoted comment that has a 16th step that is vital and left out, but got democracied down by fools.
Perform all the steps
Test with wireshark to be sure it worked
Discover a 17th step
Perform that, post it as reply so randos can downvote it
Or maybe just install an OS that doesn't fucking hate you.
Every time I think Microsoft has been as shitty about Windows 10 as possible, it finds a way to be even shittier.
The laundry list of what you can and can't do with Windows 10 is so noxious and Windows control so pervasive, someone with a new Windows 10 installation needs to effectively root the machine. Some URLs (MS telemetry) cannot be blocked by firewall. The administrator/user will not have access to the hosts file. (Boot under Linux and edit hosts file? Maybe or maybe not.) The owner/administrator needs a further level of root privilege (or just REAL root status in the first place) to prevent MS and its corporate industry partners from setting non-modifiable advertising and and hosts.ini to default settings via hardware-- if Intel were on board even running Linux could be subject to mandatory privileges blocking no one could avoid. We have to realize what is happening- MS is turning into Verizon and intel PCs are locked-down Verizon phones. Do we want to have to root each new PC we set up, or go en masse to Apple? That may be how it is lining up. Is there anything at all we can do? At this point with the Win10 handwriting on the wall I see nothing but converting to Linux or Apple as a group. MS is apparently getting ready to sign its own death warrant. We need to get really angry and DO something? (It's Apple with VMs for me.)
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
This is why I run windows 7 for my games. But considering dumping windows and going linux only gamer. Well, that and my old consoles, I have plenty of games I can play on those also. Very few new PC games do it for me anymore. Doom was a great disappointment. It's Quake III with better graphics. Which is cool if you are into arena shooters, but I'm not. Maybe I'm getting too old, but PC games suck these days for the most part.
Linux before Windows 10 for sure.
Be seeing you...