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    I just followed instructions that answers bellow give, and while you can disable damn Cortana process from respawning it'll prevent you from searching for app after launching Start menu. And considering I do WinKey+start typing to find app quite often I needed do re-enable Cortana. Thanks M$... seems you haven't learned from IE lawsuit in 90s.
    – nikib3ro
    Commented Mar 15, 2016 at 8:11
  • I don't have enough rep to answer, but if you have the "Anniversary Update" the toggle switch is gone. This registry tweak worked for me. Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 14:25
  • @kape123 I use start menu replacement and the search works. I like star10. Commented Jan 2, 2017 at 7:25
  • After using MC10's solution below (renaming to C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy.bak), which worked for over a year, I think I re-enabled it by accidentally hitting Win + Print Screen for a screen shot. I'm not going to try and confirm this now that I have it disabled again.
    – samus
    Commented May 29, 2018 at 14:28
  • @kape123 Be sure it's really cortana... I had a similar issue when I disabled apps running in the background (The main toggle, not the individual apps). Looks like the indexing process is disabled when background apps are disabled (even though it's not listed)
    – Basic
    Commented Sep 6, 2018 at 14:47