How To Easily Disable Cortana in Windows 10

If Cortana sometimes activates when you don't want it to, but you still want to be able to activate it manually, the first step is to make sure that Cortana won't respond to your voice:

1. In the taskbar, select the Cortana icon (small circle) to open it.

   

2. In the upper-left corner of the Cortana app, select the three vertical dots.

   

3. Select Settings.

   

4. Select Keyboard shortcut.

   

5. Turn off Keyboard shortcut. You'll need to restart your PC to apply the changes.

   

6. After rebooting, repeat steps 1-3. Select Voice activation.

   

7. Select Voice activation permissions.

   

8. Turn off Let Cortana respond to "Cortana" keyword.

   

For most users, disabling Cortana's ability to automatically respond to a voice command or a keyboard shortcut is enough. This will prevent Cortana from ever activating accidentally, but it won't affect your search experience, and everything will continue to operate as normal.