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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...
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.
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.
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.
In this brave new world, hiding an app is equivalent to turning it off.
"Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
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.
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.
Unfortunately, you don't understand the difference between disabling Cortana and merely hiding it so you can't see it. And Microsoft is counting on that level of ignorance.
After following those steps you listed, bring up Task manager and you will see that Cortana is still running. Kill the process and it immediately comes back. I did finally manage to successfully kill Cortana, but it's tricky and I experienced system instability afterward. So I just to Microsoft to fuck off and went back Windows 7.
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).
Every time I think Microsoft has been as shitty about Windows 10 as possible, it finds a way to be even shittier.