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Added 5th step to restart PC in order for policy change to take affect. Many people were erroneously saying this did not work. Confirmed it works on the newest update as of 12/27/2016.

To disable Cortana in windows 10

  1. Press Win + R keyboard accelerator to open Run dialog box.
  2. Type GPedit.msc and hit Enter or OK to open Local Group Policy Editor. Navigate to Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Search.
  3. In the right pane, double click on policy named Allow Cortana.
  4. Select the Disabled radio button.
  5. Restart the PC and Cortana and Bing Search will be disabled. (May work after signing out and in again)

Policy Description


This policy setting specifies whether Cortana is allowed on the device.

If you enable or don't configure this setting, Cortana will be allowed on the device. If you disable this setting, Cortana will be turned off.

When Cortana is off, users will still be able to use search to find things on the device and on the Internet.