Disable Cortana using Powershell

19 Oct 2020

  1. Open Powershell as an Administrator.

  2. Run following command to temporarily disable the digital signature execution policy. 
    Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy Bypass
  3. Create a new powershell script script-name.ps1 and add following content: 
    Function DisableCortana
{  
 $path = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search"    
 IF(!(Test-Path -Path $path)) { 
     New-Item -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows" -Name "Windows Search"
 } 
 Set-ItemProperty -Path $path -Name "AllowCortana" -Value 0 
 #Restart Explorer to change it immediately    
 Stop-Process -name explorer
}
DisableCortana
  4. Run the above script to disable the Cortana service.