Cortana Will Now Only Work With Edge And Bing On Windows 10

Megalith

24-bit/48kHz
Staff member
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
13,000
Want to tap into Google using Cortana? Well, now you can’t.

As Microsoft has frequently pointed out in the past, one of Cortana's key advantages is the assistant's ability to 'get to know you', providing a more personalized experience in its OS. This only really works as a result of Cortana's integration with Microsoft's apps and services, providing an "end-to-end personal search experience" that improves the more you use it. Cortana is powered by Microsoft's Bing search engine, and the company's ability to provide that personalization depends upon that integration. But Microsoft said today that that experience is being undermined by third parties replacing Bing as the search provider, and Edge as the web browser that works with Cortana.
 
The first things I disabled/got rid of were Cortana, Bing and Edge on my Surface. Sucks for people that use Cortana and don't care for Edge or Bing though.
 
Makes sense to me. If people have problems with a Google search result for help it's not like microsoft can do anything about it. At least with edge and Bing the system would be sustainable. I understand it but like most people here. Goodbye Cortana edge and Bing. I would say I miss you but I've used you three times and one was in accident.
 
Cortana slows down local searches and clutters the list with junk. I hate it, so I have it disabled. It's probably the only part of Windows 10 I don't like.
 
The first things I disabled/got rid of were Cortana, Bing and Edge on my Surface. Sucks for people that use Cortana and don't care for Edge or Bing though.

Also my list of things to do.

When I type in notepad in the search bar I do not want a link to some spam app on the Microsoft store, I want the actual program on my computer. Man they fucked up that search bar in Windows 10. You have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it just search the computer.
 
One of the more amusing things about Windows 10, for me, has been Edge. As a Microsoft partner, large chunks of their partner website and even old sections of the MSDN site only work on Internet Explorer and you get these little popups telling you to use a Microsoft browser in order for them to work. Even some of their new stuff like Intune and Management console only work on IE 8 or earlier.
 
I generally use Bing and Edge anyway on 10, although sometimes Google has better results for older websites and subjects because it's been around longer.

I just hope Chrome doesn't decide to retaliate by removing my ability to change my default search engine to Bing. I like using Bing on Chrome when I'm on Windows 7 and Linux.
 
I have never used Cortana and the only time I used Edge was to download Firefox and Chrome so I couldn't care less.
 
Like everyone else, it's as disabled as it can get. Firefox for me, Chrome for Wifey.
 
Well I have been procrastinating upgrading my old laptop to Win 10 just to give these new builds a go, I just have such a hard time fixing something that isn't broke. Win 7 has worked well and I really don't need these headaches.
I hate IE and Bing but thats my personal stand.
 
Again, you don't own windows, you never did. If you want to actually fully control your computer you need to use another operating system.
 
This is bloody disgusting and as much of the userbase as possible should complain vehemently. Microsoft wonders why people aren't switching to Win10, why people are worried about their privacy, their control of their own system etc... and then they go do this? Hell, they should count in a benefit that people use Cortana at all. If Cortana is supposed to actually help the user and get to know them, then it should use the search engine an browser than the user prefers. Going against this helps confirm the worst fears that Win10 isn't about what its user wants, it is what Microsoft wants. Now, its possible this could be Microsoft Old Business Stupidity instead of malice or a desire to drain your information, I admit. Someone could have said "We need more people using Bing and Edge to work on our ad service!" "Okay then, why don't we make all Cortana's features use our and only our services then? That will boost traffic" "Great!" . Ideally, there will be enough outcry and MS will roll back this change, but that will only be the case if we try to do something about it.

Sometimes I cannot believe the foolishness of Microsoft. We're at a time now where intelligent and informed people are more worried than ever about their privacy online, are tired of everything being monetized and sold. Microsoft could have a winner on their hands by saying "Hey look, remember us, we're the big company that makes its money the old way, by selling products! We don't care about your information aside aside to make our services work for you! Those other guys like Google and Facebook want to take all your information because their business is advertising, but ours is selling our software! We care about your privacy and want you to keep buying our products!" The worrisome component is that if Microsoft has decided they can actually do both because damn ethics and nobody is going to stop them. Its hard to decide who is worse (ie Google knows everything about you, but they give you quality free stuff and most likely don't want to sell your info because it is a core part of their business model and what makes them special). Regardless, we absolutely need some hard privacy laws, fast as it will only get worse.
 
I say lawsuit. Lets get all 1990's on their ass !!!!
 
Well I have been procrastinating upgrading my old laptop to Win 10 just to give these new builds a go, I just have such a hard time fixing something that isn't broke. Win 7 has worked well and I really don't need these headaches.
I hate IE and Bing but thats my personal stand.
My personal experience did not go well. The upgrade on a 2012 HP laptop broke the machines ability to sleep/wake and I lost 60% of the laptops volume because there are no SRS Sound drivers for Windows 10. Also wasted a week dealing with microsoft tech support because I really wanted it to work. These problems may be fixed in future updates to the beta operating system. But 10 will not be installed on my laptop. Besides, the laptop has an ssd and runs fast on Windows 7.

TLDR
Windows 7 may be your best bet if you like your laptops features.

As far as the new IE aka Edge browser is concerned. Wow, talk about going backwards in terms of design and features.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AK0tA
like this
TLDR
Windows 7 may be your best bet if you like your laptops features.

Experiences will obviously vary by hardware and vendor support. I've upgraded several laptops considerably older than 2012 machines and haven't encountered a single problem with hardware compatibility or drivers with 10.

As for Cortana, it's the find of thing that if one tries for a while, it can be very slick and even practical and useful. As for this particular move, its not surprising. It's pretty obvious that Microsoft wouldn't want search traffic going to Google for tons of reasons. Some that are technical in nature, some obviously about business.
 
This is pretty much a non event here anyway. Cortana is only useful on win10 phone, not desktop. Sure there may be some uses on desktop, but its full capabilities are when using it on a phone. And on the win10 phone you're pretty much locked into edge anyway. But even that doesn't matter as mobile browsers are much of a muchness.

This is a reason why win10 "for everything" was such a clusterfuck of a release for desktop and tablets. It's a phone OS. There needs to be windows and there needs to be mobile, as it was at a stage. Sure share certain services, but separate the ui. People can handle the "ui shock" as they seamlessly go from using their win7 computer in the office to checking their iphones and straight back again without needing a shock recovery break. :p
 
This is pretty much a non event here anyway. Cortana is only useful on win10 phone, not desktop. Sure there may be some uses on desktop, but its full capabilities are when using it on a phone. And on the win10 phone you're pretty much locked into edge anyway. But even that doesn't matter as mobile browsers are much of a muchness.

Not sure what you mean. Cortana on Windows 10 desktops and phones is pretty much the same thing.
 
Not sure what you mean. Cortana on Windows 10 desktops and phones is pretty much the same thing.

That's the problem. Cortana on phone is where you get it used to its full potential. Using a desktop without a microphone like I do? Cortana is severely limited.

My first cool moment with cortana on my phone was when I said "where am I"? And it loaded the map and voiced out my location. That was sweet. Do that on the desktop? Sure you could, but why would you? You're not walking the city with your desktop.

Two days ago I received an sms while driving, it asked me if I wanted it to read it to me or ignore, I just said ignore and that was that. My car stereo then notified me that the phone then disconnected itself from the call.

That sort of stuff you'll very unlikely have with a desktop setup, but you do with a phone.
 
Again, you don't own windows, you never did. If you want to actually fully control your computer you need to use another operating system.

Meh, it's not black-or-white, all or nothing. You can use 7 or 8.1 with GWX Control Panel to block the trojan updates and have a lot more control than with 10.
 
Last edited:
That's the problem. Cortana on phone is where you get it used to its full potential. Using a desktop without a microphone like I do? Cortana is severely limited.

Cortana does work through a keyboard the same as well. Most PCs are laptops these days and all of them do have mics.

My first cool moment with cortana on my phone was when I said "where am I"? And it loaded the map and voiced out my location. That was sweet. Do that on the desktop? Sure you could, but why would you? You're not walking the city with your desktop.

You can ask Cortana for directions from set locations that it knows about. One can ask for directions to a vacation destination from a desktop for instance.

Two days ago I received an sms while driving, it asked me if I wanted it to read it to me or ignore, I just said ignore and that was that. My car stereo then notified me that the phone then disconnected itself from the call.

Obviously this isn't a scenario that would occur with a desktop or laptop. However you can send text messages via a desktop or laptop to day with Cortana through a phone. Redstone will expand on that.

That sort of stuff you'll very unlikely have with a desktop setup, but you do with a phone.

But web searches are something pretty common on a desktop and Cortana works very well in that function. Of course it is being limited to Bing now. In the US at least Bing and Google are very close in performance.
 
Last edited:
The first things I disabled/got rid of were Cortana, Bing and Edge on my Surface. Sucks for people that use Cortana and don't care for Edge or Bing though.

Ditto. First thing I did when I installed Windows 10 was turn Cortana off, as well as all that active web search content in the search bar menu. I also disabled all active apps (like weather, etc) in the start menu, I hid all icons to Edge and IE, disabled and hid One Drive, and anything else that interacts with the MS cloud.

I'll let one of my Win 10 Pro VM's (with intentionally lowered resolution for the screen shot) show how my Win10 installs are typically set up:

26464517080_c5fa77d06e_o.jpg
26133320543_fa85d99db9_o.jpg
 
Cortana does worth through a keyboard the same as well. Most PCs are laptops these days and all of them do have mics.

Most people I know who do still have desktops also have Skype webcams with microphones built in. People are getting into video chat these days.
 
Microsoft should just admit Cortana is proprietary and only works with other Microsoft products and be done with it. Lipstick on a pig and all that. :kiss:
 
My personal experience did not go well. The upgrade on a 2012 HP laptop broke the machines ability to sleep/wake and I lost 60% of the laptops volume because there are no SRS Sound drivers for Windows 10. Also wasted a week dealing with microsoft tech support because I really wanted it to work. These problems may be fixed in future updates to the beta operating system. But 10 will not be installed on my laptop. Besides, the laptop has an ssd and runs fast on Windows 7.

TLDR
Windows 7 may be your best bet if you like your laptops features.

As far as the new IE aka Edge browser is concerned. Wow, talk about going backwards in terms of design and features.

The problem is not Windows 10 at all but HP themselves. They do not provide drivers except for the Operating System that came on the laptop, period. They will not provide drivers for the dual graphics support either because, I know, I have been there and done that.
 
I remember a time when monopoly laws actually meant something. Sad how things have changed.
 
RIP, Cortana. Tying it to a metro app based browser that no one wants to use and only works on one version of Windows = boneheaded move and only a matter of time until MS backpeddles on this.
 
Windows 7 may be your best bet if you like your laptops features.

Really depends on the laptop.
I upgraded several 8 year old Dell Latitudes (D830), and they work better with Windows 10 than they did with Windows 7 (both 64 bit).
Windows 10 boots faster on the old slower drives, and it makes more efficient use of the 4GB of ram.
Nobody wants to use them at the office as most people now need 8GB+ to run the needed apps, and these old laptops are heavy/bulky compared to new ones.
I've started offering them to employees who need a laptop for home or their kids, as they are still fine for Web, Email and simple games, especially with Windows 10.
 
RIP, Cortana. Tying it to a metro app based browser that no one wants to use and only works on one version of Windows = boneheaded move and only a matter of time until MS backpeddles on this.

Clearly, you do not understand what you are saying but then again, when did that ever stop you. :rolleyes:
 
Clearly, you do not understand what you are saying but then again, when did that ever stop you. :rolleyes:

Tying into web searches might be the single feature of Cortana that is most used but she does a great deal more.
 
Are you disputing that they are tying Cortana to Edge, a metro based/style browser a great many seem to not like, and Bing, their own search engine?

Or

Are you implying that MS refuses to listen to it's customers and will never back pedal on this?
 
Usually, you have to make people want to use your sweet feature before narrowing it's compatibility. But not Microsoft, they don't wait until you care.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DPI
like this
Really depends on the laptop.
I upgraded several 8 year old Dell Latitudes (D830), and they work better with Windows 10 than they did with Windows 7 (both 64 bit).
Windows 10 boots faster on the old slower drives, and it makes more efficient use of the 4GB of ram.
Nobody wants to use them at the office as most people now need 8GB+ to run the needed apps, and these old laptops are heavy/bulky compared to new ones.
I've started offering them to employees who need a laptop for home or their kids, as they are still fine for Web, Email and simple games, especially with Windows 10.

Yeah, Dell tends to have better long term support than HP, and enterprise models always have better support.

When I recommend laptops to friends and family I still recommend the Dell E6430s. I just upgrade the mini WLAN card in it so it is AC compatible.
 
Back
Top