You Can't Turn Off Cortana In The Windows 10 Anniversary Update

nightfly said:
Gates clearly must have enough money by now
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Bill Gates has nothing to do with day to day operations of Microsoft anymore, and truth be told he's been seen more often than not using a MacBook the past few years. :D

Yes he holds a tremendous amount of stock in the company but the funds that the sale of those stocks (from time to time) generates goes almost entirely into the Foundation he and his wife created many years ago.
 
Skripka said:
Outdated...They talk build 1607....well build 1611 removes Group Policy from Windows 10 Pro, see upthread.
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The solution provided has nothing to do with the Group Policy Editor. The solution it presents is basically:

- if you're logged into a Microsoft account in Windows 10, log/sign out of it
- Windows 10 then reverts to the a basic Bing search with no Cortana interaaction

It's not that tough to grasp, and the article was just posted earlier today so I doubt they're going on old info (possible, but doubtful).
 
GuruX said:
Fear-mongering at its finest.

Yes, you can turn Cortana off in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update Yes, you can turn Cortana off in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update
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Microsoft has proven that they need to be feared and cannot be trusted to do the right thing, so fear mongering is not what we are doing.
Quote from the pcworld article.
Microsoft confirmed to PCWorld that the plain search option is gone and that Cortana is your only choice.
If you don't like that, Microsoft points out you can remove the Cortana text entry box from the taskbar.

What Microsoft is taking away from Windows 10 in the Anniversary Update​
 
Tiberian said:
The solution provided has nothing to do with the Group Policy Editor. The solution it presents is basically:

- if you're logged into a Microsoft account in Windows 10, log/sign out of it
- Windows 10 then reverts to the a basic Bing search with no Cortana interaaction

It's not that tough to grasp, and the article was just posted earlier today so I doubt they're going on old info (possible, but doubtful).
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So you could log out and still use your MS store apps but only search local then ? (its an honest question from someone who only runs Windows for a few games)
 
I simply provided the basic concept of the "fix" from that article - I don't use or recommend Windows 10 so you'd have to get that answer from one of the shee---errrr someone that does. :)
 
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tetris42 said:
Yes, Quantum Break, Gears of War remake, and Forza 6 Apex. In the future, Forza Horizon 3, Crackdown 3, and Gears of War 4 will also require it. I doubt we'll see mandatory DX12 games that aren't published by Microsoft anytime soon, but anyone wanting to play any of those will need to have Windows 10.
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Or an Xbone.
 
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UnrealCpu said:
not only is google collecting our information now Microsoft wants in.
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And Microsoft, unlike Google, won't tell you what information they have on you and won't allow you to review and delete the information you don't want them to have.

B-b-but Google! is for people who are too stupid to actually think about what they're repeating in a thread.
 
nightfly said:
BTW, MS, my thumbnails still don't show up as the photos they're supposed to be mini pictures of. You ever going to fix that, or what?
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It is not a bug, for some reason, thumbnails are turned off by default. You just have to go to control panel, file Explorer options, click view tab, and remove the check in front of "always show icons, never thumbnails"
 
tetris42 said:
The DOJ isn't so big on enforcing the law these days.

Yes, Quantum Break, Gears of War remake, and Forza 6 Apex. In the future, Forza Horizon 3, Crackdown 3, and Gears of War 4 will also require it. I doubt we'll see mandatory DX12 games that aren't published by Microsoft anytime soon, but anyone wanting to play any of those will need to have Windows 10.
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You know what is also an option? Telling them to release it in your preferred platform or they don't see your money.

It is sad how many have forgotten the power they have as consumers, instead of continuing bending over for these damn corporations.
 
*sigh* Here we go again. Has there been any *good* news about Windows 10, other than stability improvements, in the last year?
 
ChadD said:
Manjaro is based on Arch... Arch is very lightweight but its a stripped down distro. (Arch isn't really for a Linux first timer) As it doesn't have a default desktop or GUI installer, you install everything yourself by hand which some linux heads love. Manjaro takes arch and lets you start with a desktop interface. Its a rolling release meaning you don't really wait for anything new, good or bad. I have never had any issues running rolling releases and prefer being able to one click install things the day new versions drop. Arch is a very well built and popular distro... Manjaro just makes getting into it a lot easier. IMO its easier for new users then Even the mints and other ubuntu spins. Much of the stuff that trips people up like installing closed source drivers are as simple as one click in Manjaro, I think it should be a more popular spin for new comers as I believe it does one of the best jobs of balancing ease of use with all the power of an advanced distro of Arch. As for system requirements... you can download Manjaro with pretty much all the major linux desktops... so you can go high end Gnome or KDE, the default desktop is XFCE which is very lightweight and still very powerful. If you have a favorite desktop though there is no issue downloading that distro... or installing the other desktops after. (you can run as many GUIs as you like... some software is written for specific GUI Libs but most don't care if you switch) Manjaro makes installing multiples pretty painless if you wanna take a few out for a spin. (unlike windows getting ride of unused ones after doesn't leave behind a ton of crap)
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From what I've read about Manjaro (I've used it myself & love it) is that it's not exactly a true rolling release like Antergos (Arch) or Sabayon (Gentoo). Thoughts?
 
Mohonri said:
*sigh* Here we go again. Has there been any *good* news about Windows 10, other than stability improvements, in the last year?
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To be perfectly honest, no, not even the fact that it's free of monetary cost as an upgrade over Windows 7/8/8.1 for about 27 more hours from the time I make this post. :D
 
I care more about group policy configuration than the Cortina non issue. This pisses me off
 
Yay! An upgrade you can't opt out of turning back on a service that you then cannot opt out of.

Fucking Microsoft.

If, for some reason, I have to go to Windows 10, at least the Microsoft Action Pack grants access to Enterprise LTSB.
 
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grtitan said:
You know what is also an option? Telling them to release it in your preferred platform or they don't see your money.

It is sad how many have forgotten the power they have as consumers, instead of continuing bending over for these damn corporations.
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Well that's the classic flaw to the "power of the consumers" reasoning. As long as you have enough uninformed or apathetic consumers, the informed ones have no power at all and will never change any sort of awful trend. This is very obvious in gaming, which has been chipping away at consumer rights for years. I mean do you think consumers LIKE it when a company supports a game for 4 years, then turns off the central servers so you can never play it again? Doesn't matter as long as it sells, they'll do stuff like that into infinity.
 
grtitan said:
Must be doing the nasty with manofwar!
:)

Or since he gets pay per post in articles, he hasn't received from microcrap today's rate.
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I'm surprised he hasn't freaked out and called you a liar from 3 different accounts already. Normally he does when people are on to him.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
From what I've read about Manjaro (I've used it myself & love it) is that it's not exactly a true rolling release like Antergos (Arch) or Sabayon (Gentoo). Thoughts?
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Its a rolling release I think some confusion comes from the version numbers they put on their snapshots.

To me it fits the definition, there are some distros that update everything accept your core system. Manjaro does update your core system, I am not sure what people where getting at with it not being rolling ? Perhaps they are referencing the way Manjaro handles the kernel. (it won't change your kernel unless you choose to). The Manjaro guys do hold many of the Arch updates for a week or two for testing before pushing them through... I don't know I don't consider that a bad thing at all. (you can also bypass the Manjaro guys if you want and just install the AUR packages if you where really waiting for some update).

From what I understand of Antergos, yes they don't hold anything they don't have anything to do with the package manager from what I understand. They are really just a GUI/Desktop installer for Arch... I have never bothered with Antergos. I should try it out at some point just to see if its worth it or not... I have installed Arch the long way and didn't find it to horrible. I think for most people that don't wanna deal with command line gparts and installs they are well off giving Manjaro a shot... IMO if you get to a point where you don't wanna wait 1-2 weeks for a specific update you should know enough to use the AUR packages anyway. For people not quite there yet I think Manjaro gives you a little more reliable experience for newer Linux users.
 
I have a netbook I tried installing Antergos to but I couldn't get very far even after following some command line fixes. Right now I have ElementaryOS on it but I'm thinking of throwing Manjaro on it again since I prefer Arch over Ubuntu.

On topic though, I always turn off Cortana & I'll be doing so with 1607.
 
I might give her a try again after the update to see if she's any use now, but she's turned off right now, not because of any fears of overreach, but because the version of Cortana that arrived with the first release was fucking useless!

I don't have a problem with having a 'digital assistant', but I don't need two. Windows 10 only exists on my desktop in the study at home. It's not with me at work (even if we had W10 it wouldn't be with personal accounts), or on the bus, or when I'm sat in front of the TV, or getting in or out of bed. Google Now (for all its own faults) is. My Nexus spends more time in my company than any other computer, and I won't be installing another battery draining app that has less integration into that device than Google.

So the digital assistant part of Cortana adds 0, but doesn't really hurt, what else is there?

Search.

Basic search in windows 10 is terrible. I've had the rig in my sig for almost a month now, and already the start menu search has been completely broken once (never ending 'results may be incomplete', so they can't make it much worse.

I find absolutely no benefit in including web searches, I tried them for a bit, but all that happened was, I'd search for something like a control panel feature, like 'remove a program' which intelligently returned 'programs and features' in Windows 7. Not only does windows 10 not return it*, by default it just gives me a list of outdated web pages full of people asking online for help removing programs in every other version of windows.

If Cortana can return windows 10 start menu search to the level of functionality we had in 2009 I'll be satisfied, otherwise i'll do my best to drown her in a bucket on a point of principle (up to and including router firewall level blocks for the whole household). If Microsoft can't or won't give me the functionality I want, they don't get my data.

Fuck this 'you are the product' bullshit. I paid for Windows 7, I paid again for Windows 8. I didn't for 10, but I would have if there were a 'don't get fucked over edition', but as it is, the paid versions of 10 are exactly the same as the free upgrades anyway.


*The legacy control panel item that is. I don't know if it's just certain programs, but the ModernUI 'settings app' seems to fail if I ever ask it to uninstall a win32 program
 
SGTGimpy said:
Just FYI, this has already been found to be not true. You can turn Cortana off in the Anniversary Update, it just is not by a simple on and off switch.

Yes, you can turn Cortana off in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update
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>Now, in fairness, Microsoft did change some things around. The criticism that an "off switch" for Cortana is removed is technically correct and likely where much of the misinformation originates.

>Here is how to log off Cortana if you already are using the Anniversary Update.

>Cortana will now revert to a generic search engine for your PC and web with no links to your Microsoft Account

>Don't forget, "turn off" sounds like you are completely disabling everything Cortana does, which is not the case. On iOS, Android, Windows 10 Mobile, and Windows 10 PC you can sign out of Cortana and still use Cortana for non-personalized searches. That's not turning it off.

SURE SOUNDS LIKE YOU CAN'T TURN OFF CORTANA
 
nightfly said:
I just don't understand. They have the capacity to create a great OS that everyone would like, that wouldn't rot, and could be customized to each individual. It would sell easily. But instead, they go about using all kinds of marketing tricks to manipulate and screw over their customers, and make us all hate them. Why? Gates clearly must have enough money by now; why can't he pull an even better move than Carnagie and do the right thing? Make the greatest OS. Stop doing sneaky things. Sell other software and hardware. Be the company that people will praise, instead of curse at. You're not fooling anyone with Bing, or Cortana, or your 'rent an app' subscriptions to software.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door to buy it, instead of charging there with pitchforks and torches to lynch you. Wake up, Microsoft, and stop being such a dick to everyone else. Nobody wants software that spies on us. NOBODY.

You've had a virtual lock on operating systems now for about 20 years. You could have built something great. Instead, you build predatory, sneaky software that self destructs over time.

BTW, MS, my thumbnails still don't show up as the photos they're supposed to be mini pictures of. You ever going to fix that, or what?
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Gates has not been involved since windows 7, he came out of retirment when they launched vista to fix their fk ups, was gone when they released win 8, and IMO things been right messed since that day forward, bunch of ass clowns running things there to allow the majority of crap they made for 10, forced updating, bandwidth sharing, nasty nasty start menu and so forth, they have the ability to make better then 7 which bar none IMO was best one they ever made, just need some "tuning" not taking what was great and making nasty.

There is a reason why they made it free I guess, cause they know what it was worth, and what shit they were going to pull, sorry so many were roped into and forced to use.
 
I smell a new Steve Gibson utility coming. CortanOFF !

One can only hope :) This is right up his alley.
 
grtitan said:
Must be doing the nasty with manofwar!
:)

Or since he gets pay per post in articles, he hasn't received from microcrap today's rate.
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What the HELL is wrong with you?

DeathFromBelow said:
I'm surprised he hasn't freaked out and called you a liar from 3 different accounts already. Normally he does when people are on to him.
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Really? Wow, you have it all figured out I guess, a cookie for you. :D Interesting how you guys get off on one another.
 
More bullshit from the OS designed to give IT departments aneurysms.
 
I have not tried the Anniversary Edition, so have no idea if this works on that version (but the following does work on current versions of Windows 10) but Cortana needs to be linked to a Microsoft Account to keep its data it knows about you. Cortana installed but dont want to use Cortana? No problem! Dont log in with a Microsoft Account (use a local account). Problem solved.
 
H2R2P2 said:
I have not tried the Anniversary Edition, so have no idea if this works on that version (but the following does work on current versions of Windows 10) but Cortana needs to be linked to a Microsoft Account to keep its data it knows about you. Cortana installed but dont want to use Cortana? No problem! Dont log in with a Microsoft Account (use a local account). Problem solved.
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Problem not solved if I don't want cortana pinging the mothership and giving me bing shopping & web results when all I want is to find a document on my local drives. There needs to be an OFF/DISABLE switch for that bullshit, period. I don't want the service running if I have no use for it.

They're allowing Enterprise & Education SKU's to keep the GP ability to turn off Cortando completely, why not 10 Pro? Because they take their customers for granted now that they have them captive.
 
Jim Kim said:
Microsoft has proven that they need to be feared and cannot be trusted to do the right thing, so fear mongering is not what we are doing.
Quote from the pcworld article.
Microsoft confirmed to PCWorld that the plain search option is gone and that Cortana is your only choice.
If you don't like that, Microsoft points out you can remove the Cortana text entry box from the taskbar.

What Microsoft is taking away from Windows 10 in the Anniversary Update​
Click to expand...


YEAH. Local search, and Internet both go under the same name. Log out of Cortana through your Microsoft account, or better yet don't use a microsoft account and it's traditional local search.
 
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