The WP personal assistant will soon arrive on the desktop

Dec 6, 2014 09:33 GMT  ·  By

Windows Phone’s personal assistant Cortana will soon arrive on the desktop with the help of Windows 10, and the first references have already been spotted in build 9860 released a couple of months ago.

The Consumer Preview build scheduled for early 2015 is very likely to come with a fully-working version of Cortana that would allow users to perform a number of actions without even touching the mouse and keyboard.

WinBeta published the first video showing Cortana in action on the desktop, and even though the build number of the Windows 10 version that’ll bring this feature is yet to be disclosed, there’s no doubt that we’re not really that far from getting our hands on the personal assistant as well.

Keep in mind, however, that this particular build is still in early development stage, so a lot could actually change until Windows 10 hits the market. Microsoft has already said that some of the features included in the Technical Preview could be either tweaked or removed before the final launch, so this is just a very early version of Cortana for the desktop.

Only few features available right now

Since these are just the first steps made by Cortana on the traditional PC, it’s really obvious that only a few features are available at this point, but we’re hearing that Microsoft wants to bring absolutely all options offered to Windows Phone users on the desktop as well.

The existing testing version of Cortana can set reminders, play and pause music, launch applications installed on your computer, display the weather forecast, and check the location.

Some more advanced features are missing right now, so chitchatting is not yet supported. You can’t activate it by saying “Hey Cortana,” but an icon placed on the taskbar instantly launches it in a popup very similar to the existing search window.

Cortana will at first be available in English only, but just like it’s happening right now on Windows Phone, Microsoft will most likely attempt to release it in some other languages too. On Windows Phone, Cortana recently debuted in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain in the form of an alpha build for devices enrolled in the Preview for Developers program.

As for Windows 10, expect Cortana to be up and ready for the stable version of the operating system which, according to Microsoft’s own statements, should arrive in late summer 2015 or early fall. More details could, however, be provided in April 2015 at he BUILD conference, when a developer preview of Windows 10 could also be presented.

Cortana on Windows 10's desktop (10 Images)

Cortana on Windows 10
Cortana on Windows 10 comes with only a few featuresCortana on Windows 10 helps you set up reminders
+7more