How to uninstall Cortana in Windows 10 2004

Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana is evolving and it’s here to stay, but it’s no secret that many Windows 10 users aren’t really big fans of Cortana.

Starting with the release of Windows 10 May 2020 Update, Cortana is now a standalone app and it’s no longer an integral part of the platform.

By default, Cortana ‘app’ is added to the Startup programs which are automatically run when you turn on your PC. If you don’t use Cortana or you want to disable its background presence on Windows 10, you can switch off the feature by following these steps:

  1. Open Task Manager by pressing CTRL+Shift+Escape keys together
  2. Click on the tab titled ‘Start-up’.


  3. Look for a program called Cortana.
  4. Click on Cortana to highlight it.

    Cortana Startup

  5. Click the ‘Disable’ option located at bottom-right.

How to uninstall the Cortana app on Windows 10

Since Cortana is now available as a standalone app on Windows 10, you can fire up the Windows PowerShell app and uninstall the app package.

To remove the Cortana app from your current user account, follow these steps:

  1. Open Start menu.
  2. Simply type ‘PowerShell’.
  3. Highlight ‘PowerShell’ result and click on ‘Run As Administrator’.


  4. In the PowerShell window, type and enter the following command:
    Get-AppxPackage -allusers Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 | Remove-AppxPackage
  5. Reboot your system.

In PowerShell window, you can also run the following command to remove Cortana from all user accounts:

Get-AppxPackage * Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 * -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage

If you want to completely remove the Cortana package from everywhere including ‘WindowsApps’ folder, run the following command:

Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online -PackageName Microsoft.549981C3F5F10_1.1911.21713.0_neutral_ ~ _8wekyb3d8bbwe

The above PowerShell commands remove the Cortana app and all traces of the digital assistant.

You can always reinstall the Cortana app by downloading the package from the Microsoft Store.


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