14 DAY TRIAL // We all knew that Cortana would soon arrive on the traditional PC with the help of Windows 10, but up until now, Microsoft tried to keep everything secret and avoid sharing any details on the new version of its personal assistant.
While references to this new PC version of Cortana have already been found in older Windows 10 Technical Preview builds, the latest release, labeled as builds number 9879, comes with the very first configuration screen for the personal assistant on a PC.
The zPC settings screen, which is being used to showcase some of the features that Microsoft is working on and which could be implemented in a future update, now includes what the company calls “Cortana and speech” settings under the “Privacy” menu.
Few options are available at this point, but it does come as a confirmation that Cortana is reaching a more advanced development stage with every new Windows 10 update, so expect the upcoming builds, which should come in early 2015, to include a working version of the personal assistant.
Cortana and speech personalization
At this point, there's not much you can do in this new configuration screen, as it doesn't seem to be finished in the current build of Windows 10.
“When you use Cortana or speech, your personalization data is used to improve speed recognition, dictation, and text-to-speech. You can go to Bing to manage your cloud data and also clear your local data below. Turn off Cortana and speech to disable personalization,” the info published here reads.
After digging in for more information in Windows 10 system files, we’ve come across pretty much the same references found in the previous releases, but we've also discovered a new “CortanaUI” shortcut which could be used to launch the personal assistant.
References to a shortcut have also been found in build 9860, but this is the first time the shortcut itself shows up, and you can see in the photo gallery below that its creation date is November 13, which is living proof that it was introduced with the new build 9879.
There's no doubt that Cortana will be included in Windows 10, and this new update is pretty much the most obvious sign that Microsoft is hard at work to make this happen in the final version of the OS. According to sources, Windows 10 should see daylight in spring 2015, so by that time, Cortana for PC should be ready to talk to its users.
