14 DAY TRIAL // Rumors that made the headlines last year indicated that Microsoft might kill Cortana at some point in the future, and while this is highly unlikely, the software giant is still making changes that reduce its exposure in Windows 10.
One of these tweaks was announced this week as part of the latest Windows 10 preview build. The company has separated Cortana and the search feature, technically giving the digital assistant its own interface and button on the taskbar.
The feature was already available in Windows 10 preview builds, but with the release of Windows 10 19H1 build 18317, it is enabled for all Windows insiders.
Users can unpin the Cortana icon separately
The same change will go live for production devices when the Windows 10 version 1903 launches in the spring.
“This will enable each experience to innovate independently to best serve their target audiences and use cases. Some Insiders have had this update for a few weeks now, and we appreciate all the feedback we’ve received about it so far!” Dona Sarkar, the head of the Windows Insider program, explained.
“For those new to this update, when it rolls out to you, you’ll find clicking the search box in the taskbar now launches our experience focused on giving you the best in house search experience and clicking the Cortana icon will launch you straight into our voice-first digital assistant experience.”
Since the Windows search and Cortana are now two different features, they come with their very own settings and policies in Windows 10.
Back in 2018, it was speculated that Cortana could end up being transferred to the system tray, which would have given the digital assistant even lower exposure. However, given users are now capable of unpinning the Cortana icon separately, there’s a good chance this is exactly what’s going to happen, so the digital assistant would eventually end up begin disabled on a significant number of devices.