Evidence of Cortana shows up on Windows 10

Oct 2, 2014 07:44 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft's personal assistant Cortana, which is currently available on Windows Phone exclusively, was expected to make its public debut on PCs with the help of Windows 10, but it turns out that this feature is not yet available to users.

But while the software giant hasn't talked about Cortana at all during its San Francisco event a couple of days ago, it appears that the personal assistant is already there in Windows 10, only that it's not available to users.

MSFTKitchen had a closer look at the files included in the preview version of Windows 10 and found several references to Cortana, which could be an indication that the feature is already there, but Microsoft preferred to lock it until development reaches a more advanced stage.

Screenshots that got leaked a few weeks ago revealed that Cortana was already integrated in Windows 10 testing builds, but only came in the form of a reminder.

The public preview version, however, removed the reminder altogether, which could be another sign that Cortana could actually be hidden away from users.

Cortana references all over the OS

A simple search on the main C:\ drive reveals quite a lot of files that Cortana needs to work and the Windows.Cortana.dll file seems to confirm that the engine has already been implemented in the operating system.

Registry items also indicate that Cortana is already present in Windows 10, despite the fact that its features aren't yet visible to users. References to a PC version of Microsoft's personal assistant also exist in the Windows app files, the source notes.

"Next up on the docket are what appear to be most (if not all) of Cortana’s Windows App files. Between the files in this directory and the aforementioned registry entries, I feel confident that Cortana is in this Windows 10 technical preview build after all, but just disabled (with the potential to be enabled via a bit of messing about)," MSFTKitchen writes.

At this point, it's not yet clear whether these restrictions can be bypassed and unlock Cortana, but more information on this will most likely emerge soon.

Testing version of Cortana coming in future updates

Sources told us that Cortana would indeed be locked in the preview version of Windows 10, but we also heard that Microsoft planned to introduce it in a future update of the operating system before the public launch in spring 2015.

However, this could change as Microsoft continues work on Windows 10 and wants to keep some surprises for the final launch as well, and there's no doubt that Cortana could be one of the most important new features in the OS.

We're also hearing that Cortana is available internally only to a few engineers, which makes it very clear that Microsoft doesn't want many people to get to try its personal assistant before the scheduled date.