KILL the Cortana process

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Until we can get a more comprehensive idea of it’s privacy implications…
Or if you just plain and simply have no use for the stupid APPLE nock-off.

Warning: This will also kill the “Search” functionality on the taskbar too, which I know some of you have no need for whatsoever.

Prior to performing the following I recommend that you curtail Cortana as much as possible from within it’s own settings first,
and then the last bit here should finish it off completely. Take note that a future WU may repair this and it’s
also highly possible that a typical OS repair will do the same.

***

First open up task manager and look for it’s backgrounds process. Take note that
it comes right back after “ending” it, so…

Navigate to this folder: C:WindowsSystemApps in Windows Explorer & right click on
the folder “Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy”, attempts to rename it will fail, but after
failing to do so, go back to Task Manager and end it again. Then quickly switch back
to renaming it, it should take this time and Cortana will no longer show up in Task Manager.

The above worked for me and was found here.

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Replies

CLiNT,

Or just switch to a Local Account. This method let’s you keep the search box.
41815-LocalAcctSearchBox
Sample:
41816-LocalAcctSearchBox1

Personally, I’m not real keen on this whole MS Account thing (Snowdenphobia) 😆

HTH :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Personally, I’m not real keen on this whole MS Account thing (Snowdenphobia) 😆

HTH :cheers:

I agree, RG. I have done just fine with my “local” account for all these years. Whenever I needed to connect to anything, I connected manually, then disconnected when I was done. For example, using VPN to log onto my work network. I really don’t appreciate being shoehorned into a “domain” account by Microsoft.

“Snowdenphobia” — a great name, in honor of one of our nation’s heroes.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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The other side of the argument is that you guys have to stop disabling things like Cortana and not use local accounts or there’s little point in using Win 10 because the interoperability of those features is what sets it apart from say, Win 7. In other words, this is what she’s built for! So what if MS and others are gathering a little information on the side, what do you have to hide?

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what do you have to hide?

Fun,

If you only knew!
35623-ROTFLOL

Actually though they are not the only reasons. There are security enhancements and it runs a lot faster than 7 on my older laptops. And of course “it’s FREE” who can pass up FREE! 😆 HTH :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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There are security enhancements and it runs a lot faster than 7 on my older laptops. And of course “it’s FREE” who can pass up FREE! 😆 HTH :cheers:

Aye, the wrong kind of security enhancements though, the ones that enhance MS’s hold on computers and further the same mounting internal roadblocks instead of something like an enhanced Steady State that has been long abandoned. It’s like the difference between China’s capitalism and real capitalism to me, sometimes subtle, sometimes dramatic. MS loses some, maybe a lot of control though if they opt for real changes in security.

And by the way, the difference in reading of John Carter from then to now (35 years), JC is now pretty much a MORON! He can fight even better than I remember though…from pole to pole, uncovering three long-forgotten races in less than two [Barsoom] years and conquering them all! Oops, spoiler alert.

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The other side of the argument is that you guys have to stop disabling things like Cortana and not use local accounts or there’s little point in using Win 10 because the interoperability of those features is what sets it apart from say, Win 7. In other words, this is what she’s built for! So what if MS and others are gathering a little information on the side, what do you have to hide?

For a time, I was running Windows 8.0 (32 bit) rather than Windows 7, because I wanted to stay up with the times, not because I wanted “interoperability” (or a Microsoft “domain” account, as I call it). I then chose to go back to Windows 7, because of little issues here and there. I never wanted a “domain” account on my personal computer. I had one on my work computer — it was called VPN.

I am somewhat suspicious of Microsoft shoehorning everyone into setting up a Microsoft account rather than a local account (i.e. they hide the option to set up a local account), when it would be just as easy for them to allow you to freely choose between Microsoft and Local — they could simply give a brief explanation of what each of the two means, and then let the user choose.

But I suspect that the vast majority of users have no clue that a Microsoft account is not, in fact, a local account. I’m sure that at least some people would choose to have a local account if they were given a clear explanation and a clear choice.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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The other side of the argument is that you guys have to stop disabling things like Cortana and not use local accounts or there’s little point in using Win 10 because the interoperability of those features is what sets it apart from say, Win 7. In other words, this is what she’s built for! So what if MS and others are gathering a little information on the side, what do you have to hide?

I’m assuming that this is at least partly in jest, but the first part of it is a fair enough comment. To that I say…

Every version of Windows that has been released had things I didn’t like, particularly when the UI kept changing. Same with Office; I still can see no reason for replacing perfectly good drop down menus. And the less said about “Clippy” the better.

In the past, MS was fairly tolerant of making changes, they even provided some fairly straight forward ways of changing the desktop appearance back to the way prior versions worked. But starting with Win8, there was a new sheriff in town and there were new rules. One of those rules was that everyone was going to have to live with what MS gave them. If they decided we should all be using an updated version of Clippy then we were going to use it and like it. IOW, they had adopted the Uber Nanny, “Shut up and eat your vegetables” approach.

They are backing off on that some now that they see the level of the uproar this has caused among many professionals who used to be their biggest supporters. Basically, what they have found is that people are not going to take it all lying down, and there is some really serious competition out there that could reduce Windows to a platform only used by those who have no other choice.

So, to the notion that we should just accept what we are given:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas, 1914 – 1953

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@ Rick Corbett

Thanks for your posts, but it seems I didn’t make it clear enough what I am concerned about re Cortana.

While my computer is more-than-capable of allowing Cortana’s voice-activation etc. I am not at all interested in using such nonsense technology. Rather I am more concerned with the question of how to avoid having Cortana start with Windows.

Further to my #20 post above resetting the “AllowCortana” registry entries from 1 to 0 didn’t work; after each change and restarting Win10 Cortana was still active and using 50MB memory (what for? – I don’t use the bally thing).

I ran a few Google searches and the only thing that has (sort-of) worked so far has been: “Method 2: Rename Microsoft Cortana System folder” at http://www.technicalnotes.org/disable-cortana-in-windows-10-completely/

Has stopped Cortana from running but now I have repeating errors in Event Viewer complaining “unable to access specified location”.

Will “sleep on it” for now but will certainly be looking for some resolution in the near future.

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@ Rick Corbett

Thanks for your posts, but it seems I didn’t make it clear enough what I am concerned about re Cortana.

While my computer is more-than-capable of allowing Cortana’s voice-activation etc. I am not at all interested in using such nonsense technology. Rather I am more concerned with the question of how to avoid having Cortana start with Windows.

I understand and agree wholeheartedly. Unfortunately Cortana appears to have been deliberately designed so it’s impossible to disable it without causing problems and I’ve yet to come across a foolproof method. As a result I have every Cortana behaviour switched off except for local search, but – like you – the always-running searchUI process still uses ~47MB.

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I followed this article to shut down Cortana and clear all search history.
How to: Disable Cortana in Windows 10
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/408182,how-to-disable-cortana-in-windows-10.aspx?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=PC+%26+Tech+Authority++-+Latest+Articles

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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Has anyone looked down to the search box to see their current conversation w/ spouse, or the newscaster’s reporting on the TV in the same room being entered like closed-captioning? Scary!
ps – I now have a post-it over the camera lens 😉

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Has anyone looked down to the search box to see their current conversation w/ spouse, or the newscaster’s reporting on the TV in the same room being entered like closed-captioning? Scary!
ps – I now have a post-it over the camera lens 😉

No, but Adam Carolla says that anytime he has time alone with his laptop, he puts a stretch of electrical tape over the cam lens, just in case.

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I’m still old school when it comes to using nothing but a non MS logon admin account.

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Windows 10 Checks For Pirate Bay Torrents, Bootleg Games And Hardware Automatically

Don’t plan on using any games or bootleg software downloaded from the Pirate Bay on Windows 10. The End User License Agreement in the new operating system makes it clear that Windows 10 is capable of scanning user machines and prohibiting them from using any services that appear to have been obtained illegally.

Section 7b of Microsoft’s Services EULA (under “Updates to the Services or Software, and Changes to These Terms”) warns users that Windows 10 “may automatically check your version of the software and download software updates or configuration changes, including those that prevent you from accessing the services, playing counterfeit games, or using unauthorized hardware peripheral devices.”

By agreeing to these terms, Alphr.com reported, users are enabling Microsoft to sift through their files in search of the vaguely defined “unauthorized hardware peripheral devices,” which could mean anything from modified Xbox controllers to unauthorized versions of Microsoft Office.

What’s more clear is that corporate patience with pirated games and software is running out. Video game makers have increasingly required users to input an activation code that comes with purchased copies of the game before they’re allowed to play online, limiting the appeal of a pirated copy. Adobe, in response to seemingly endless Photoshop piracy, recently unveiled a subscription-only version of the popular editing software, only to have that pirated and redistributed within a day of its release.

Microsoft has yet to publicly clarify what its EULA actually means, but this update is just the latest bone of contention for users concerned about their privacy. It was previously reported that Windows 10 will monitor users and send regular updates on their activity back to the company, even if they say they wish to share nothing at all.

Some food for thought, although I can’t really say it suprises me [much].

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Windows 10 Checks For Pirate Bay Torrents, Bootleg Games And Hardware Automatically

Some food for thought, although I can’t really say it suprises me [much].

What’s to stop them from doing that to Windows 7 and 8?

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What’s to stop them from doing that to Windows 7 and 8?

I assume that would be lawsuits since people paid for those.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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I assume that would be lawsuits since people paid for those.

I think they can change the EULA at any time.

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What’s to stop them from doing that to Windows 7 and 8?

Nothing

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fix windows 10’s annoying issues of “everything on”

The One Stop Shop for Basic Privacy in Windows 10;
https://fix10.isleaked.com/

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Warning: This will also kill the “Search” functionality on the taskbar too, which I know some of you have no need for whatsoever.

Um, hi, guys!.. “[..] no need for whatsoever” – except for running every. single. program. ever. on. the. PC. xD

^^ Because, it’s: CTRL + ESC and then I type: “Firefox” & press ENTER and the browser launches. Isn’t it what (OK, almost) EVERYONE does?! I mean, how else would you run your software? 😮

AND, SO, Administrator: Command Prompt can -just- keep-on killing SearchUI.exe and it’ll keep coming back, forever. Obviously, Administrator: PowerShell ISE is not going to be able to remove %windir%SystemApps’Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_YourPCFolder because of it.

45823-admin_cmd45824-Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_

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Warning: This will also kill the “Search” functionality on the taskbar too, which I know some of you have no need for whatsoever.

I just use the following registry edit to disable Cortana system-wide (but keep searches, both online and local):

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; Cortana – Disable Cortana system-wide but keep searches

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindows Search]
“AllowCortana”=dword:00000000

In addition, you can use the following registry edit to disable online/web searches (but keep local searches) for current user:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; Cortana – Search online and include web results (Turn OFF)

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionSearch]
“BingSearchEnabled”=dword:00000000

If you want to reverse the effects of either edit, just change dword:00000000 to dword:00000001.

Note that these settings do not exist by default so merging either REG file will add these settings initially.

Hope this helps…

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I just use the following registry edit to disable Cortana system-wide but keep local search:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; Cortana – Disable Cortana system-wide but keep local search

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindows Search]
“AllowCortana”=dword:00000000

…

…

That entry doesn’t exist in my Win10 Pro x64 registry (upgraded from Win7; Build 14393.321).

Ran regedit as Administrator and searched for “AllowCortana” which found “AllowCortana” at:

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftPolicyManagercurrentdeviceExperience

The “AllowCortana” DWORD value was 0x00000001 (1 – enabled). So I’ll reset that value to 0 and see what happens; but first I’ll backup the current registry just-in-case.

Will post back later w/ results.

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That entry doesn’t exist in my Win10 Pro x64 registry (upgraded from Win7; Build 14393.321).

Ran regedit as Administrator and searched for “AllowCortana” which found “AllowCortana” at:

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftPolicyManagercurrentdeviceExperience

The “AllowCortana” DWORD value was 0x00000001 (1 – enabled). So I’ll reset that value to 0 and see what happens; but first I’ll backup the current registry just-in-case.

I have both Build 10586.633 and Build 14393.321 and on both of them the default location for AllowCortana is:

Code:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftPolicyManagerdefaultExperience

45827-14393.321
Click to enlarge

This is slightly different to yours. I believe it’s because I’ve never had Cortana enabled on either device… so my settings remain within default whilst yours are now within currentdevice

However, this is for the overall use of Cortana, not the AllowCortana settings that affects Search. The AllowCortana settings that affect Search don’t exist by default… so you need to merge one of the REG files from post #19 (which I’ve amended).

Foe example:

45828-1511.10586.added-to-search
Click to enlarge

Hope this helps…

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Just after AU was released, it as still possible to rename SearchUI to prevent it from running (had to be quick > kill it, rename it before it’s triggered again) and reporting back to MS. ~5 days uptime (no sleep) after my customisations, still zero traffic created by any App.

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If you use Cortana but don’t like it being activated by voice (‘Hey Cortana’) then you can use the following registry edit to turn this off per user:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; Cortana – Let Cortana respond to ‘Hey Cortana’ – Turn OFF

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftSpeech_OneCorePreferences]
“VoiceActivationOn”=dword:00000000

Again, if you want to turn voice activation back on again, just change dword:00000000 to dword:00000001.

Hope this helps…

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If you use Cortana and its voice activation (‘Hey Cortana’) but don’t want this available when the lock screen is displayed then you can use this registry edit:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; Cortana – Lock screen – Use Cortana even when my device is locked (Turn OFF)

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftSpeech_OneCorePreferences]
“VoiceActivationEnableAboveLockscreen”=dword:00000000

Again, to turn voice activation on the lock screen back on again, just change dword:00000000 to dword:00000001.

Hope this helps…

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Turn off Cortana? Why would anyone want to do that? She is one of the beautiful things about Windows 10. Please people take off those tinfoil hats, stop listening to conspiracy theorists, and join the real world. Operating Systems are not going to stagnate. They are always going to go forward, and connecting with the cloud, telemetry, etc. are the new rules. This is what is happening right now, and it will never go away. Get used to it. All the operating systems will be using these tools, and they are awesome. Cross platform communications, saving our settings to ease migration, and reinstallation is a wonderful achievement. In the not-to-distant future we will perform tasks on our computer by verbal communication most, if not all of the time. Don’t stay in the past! Move forward! This is what is happening, and no amount of fear mongering or conspiracy talk will stop it.

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Turn off Cortana? Why would anyone want to do that?…

Because I am not interested in talking to my computer and see absolutely no advantage in doing so. And I seriously object to Micro$oft adding such a “feature” without providing any means to turn it off.

Re your comments about “fear mongering or conspiracy talk”: you are entitled to your opinion in that regard but the present context (this thread) clearly arises from Micro$oft’s failure to provide any up-front means to disable such a potentially unwanted feature. In fact, from what I have seen so far delving into this issue Cortana exhibits virus-like behaviours.

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Because I am not interested in talking to my computer and see absolutely no advantage in doing so. And I seriously object to Micro$oft adding such a “feature” without providing any means to turn it off.

You don’t have to talk to Cortana to make use of search capabilities; responding to “Hey Cortana” is switched off by default. She responds to typing too, but only when you want.

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from what I have seen so far delving into this issue Cortana exhibits virus-like behaviours.

I wonder if any of the A/V products could somehow block Cortana and the other snooping “features” of W10? I wonder if they would dare try? And if they were to succeed in doing it, I wonder if W10 would still work under those conditions?

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I wonder if any of the A/V products could somehow block Cortana and the other snooping “features” of W10? I wonder if they would dare try? And if they were to succeed in doing it, I wonder if W10 would still work under those conditions?

Whilst I can’t answer for any AV products (as this isn’t their raison d’être), I’ve been experimenting with several different anti-snooping utilities and methods. Windows has continued working and I haven’t experienced any adverse issues that I’m aware of.

Although I’m a big fan of How-To Geek, I don’t agree with the recent Why You Shouldn’t Use “Anti-Spying” Tools for Windows 10 article. I believe it’s more than possible to amend Windows 10’s default behaviour to be much less intrusive and leak less personal data, if you are sensible and understand the changes you are making.

Hope this helps…

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Are you or MS paying for my bandwidth, DJ?

Do either of you know how I use my computer(s)?

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This is what is happening, and no amount of fear mongering or conspiracy talk will stop it

That reminds me of that old movie “Soylent Green”. Just eat it and stop worrying about what it is or where it came from.:o:

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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Turn off Cortana? Why would anyone want to do that? She is one of the beautiful things about Windows 10. Please people take off those tinfoil hats, stop listening to conspiracy theorists, and join the real world. Operating Systems are not going to stagnate. They are always going to go forward, and connecting with the cloud, telemetry, etc. are the new rules. This is what is happening right now, and it will never go away. Get used to it. All the operating systems will be using these tools, and they are awesome. Cross platform communications, saving our settings to ease migration, and reinstallation is a wonderful achievement. In the not-to-distant future we will perform tasks on our computer by verbal communication most, if not all of the time. Don’t stay in the past! Move forward! This is what is happening, and no amount of fear mongering or conspiracy talk will stop it.

Before you know it, we won’t have to make any decisions about anything. All of the information that W10, Google, Facebook, etc., continually gather will be used to make “correct” decisions for us, so we can passively cruise through life, without a care in the world. Right, DJ?

Not a bad scenario if you work for Microsoft, eh DJ? I imagine that Microsoft, etc., will be the deciders, not the decidees.

DJ, you forgot about Linux. Linux doesn’t have the “telemetry” snooping built in. Of course, Microsoft is trying to get their claws into Ubuntu Linux, but that remains to be seen.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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DJ, you forgot about Linux. Linux doesn’t have the “telemetry” snooping built in. Of course, Microsoft is trying to get their claws into Ubuntu Linux, but that remains to be seen.

Not to worry, they will! We can only hope. 🙂

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Have you looked at O&O’s “Shutup 10” utility?
One may turn almost every option off…

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Have you looked at O&O’s “Shutup 10” utility?
One may turn almost every option off…

This looks like an excellent program, if it works. I’m not doubting that it works, but that question is always in my mind.

I don’t have Windows 10. With what everyone says about it, I’m simply not up to the challenge of trying to get my computer to work the way I want in spite of Microsoft’s efforts. I would prefer to put my efforts into getting Linux to work the way I want. (I’m almost there; just about everything works the way I need it to.)

This program would eliminate one of the concerns I have about W10, that is, snooping by Microsoft.

The other concern I have, the inability to pick and choose which updates I want or don’t want, is my other concern. I don’t see a way around that one, as long as Microsoft persists in doing the all-in-one monthly rollup.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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[bbearren]

No one has paid for Windows, regardless of which version you’re talking about.

Everyone paid for a license to use Windows; Windows still belongs entirely to Microsoft. That’s not going to change.

So when you’re talking about your Windows 7, you’re actually talking about your license to use Microsoft’s Windows 7.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by bbearren.

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[bbearren]

My data is organized in such a way that I don’t need search to find a file I want on my PC. The only time I might use search is to open Event Viewer or some such. For online searches I use Startpage, which is actually a Google search hidden behind a VPN. I don’t get targeted ads in my web browsing.

I don’t use Cortana (I haven’t enabled its “extra” features) and I don’t use Bing. I do use Cortana on my phone for voice dial when I’m driving, but I don’t do searching on my phone much, and when I do, I use Startpage there, also.

So I don’t have a lot of concern about how MS is phoning home about how I use my computer. Why should I care that MS knows that I visit Windows Secrets Lounge frequently? There is no way that I can foresee that MS can change Cortana to the extent that I would want to use it on my PC. I can just see it now: “Cortana, open Excel spreadsheet so-and-so”, and my wife says, “What did you say?” and my son says “Were you talking to me?” and Cortana says “Excel spreadsheet so-an-so is not on this computer.”

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by bbearren.

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As I stated in my #28 post “Method 2: Rename Microsoft Cortana System folder” at http://www.technicalnotes.org/disable-cortana-in-windows-10-completely/
seemed to work to stop Cortana.

BUT after renaming the Cortana folder as instructed multiple errors appeared in Event LogAdministrative Events each time Win10 started up (indeed Cortana didn’t show in Task Manager, but in this case the cure seems worse than the disease). So I ran System Restore and restored back to the restore point I created before attempting to disable Cortana.

Have since run SpyBot “Anti-Beacon” ( https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/ ) and applied further blocks in the “Optional” section; Cortana is still running and using 35 to 55MB memory, however the Cortana search item in the taskbar has been replaced with a “Search Windows” item:
45831-CortanaOff
So I have made some progress.

Have also spent quite a lot of time Googling the issue but as yet haven’t found any fix that seems likely to work in an acceptable fashion (but many complaints about Micro$oft’s behaviour in removing the option to disable Cortana in Settings in build 1607).

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As I stated in my #28 post “Method 2: Rename Microsoft Cortana System folder” at http://www.technicalnotes.org/disable-cortana-in-windows-10-completely/
seemed to work to stop Cortana.

BUT after renaming the Cortana folder as instructed multiple errors appeared in Event LogAdministrative Events each time Win10 started up (indeed Cortana didn’t show in Task Manager, but in this case the cure seems worse than the disease)..

Why is this a problem? There are always a stack of events logged because of missing options or files. It’s been that way for years and they cause no actual problem in Windows.

The only people that seem to be interested in them are the scammers that use the Event Viewer script.

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I think that it’s probably worth considering that a very similar discussion took place over Internet Explorer in Win95. MS was even sued by the US Justice department over the issue of anti-trust infringements.

IE never went away but you were never forced to use it. OTOH, it didn’t run in the background the way Cortana does and that’s something that bothers many people. Granted, there is an aspect of paranoia involved with this, but MS brought this on themselves because Cortana came along at the same time as the whole issue of data-collection by Windows. Win10 was seen, right or wrong, as spying on users.

Until yesterday (20 Oct), I didn’t talk to my computer, iPad, phone, or any other inanimate object. Yesterday, I received an Echo Dot to experiment with. I’m still not sold on talking to my laptop, but I can see some useful reasons to talk to A computer of some kind and that’s what I am exploring with the Echo.

So, perhaps there will be a place for Cortana on my PC, but she is going to have to face the fact that she is going to be in competition with Alexa, Siri, Google (you gotta come up with a better name honey) and a few more to be named personal assistants. At least we don’t yet have a talking Clippy.

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IE never went away but you were never forced to use it. OTOH, it didn’t run in the background the way Cortana does and that’s something that bothers many people.

Actually, starting with IE 4, IE has been hard-coded into Windows. Now that it was a part of Windows, it was no longer a separate product. Microsoft did that so that they couldn’t be sued for dumping IE free into the market.

I’m not sure if it was ever un-hard-coded from Windows or not. Perhaps it has been in Windows 10, now that Edge is the official Microsoft browser.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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IE hasn’t been “hard coded” into Windows for a long time. It can be uninstalled via Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features On and Off. This has been available by at least Windows 7 and I believe Vista as well.

Jerry

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…It can be uninstalled via Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features On and Off…

That only removes the IE shortcuts; it doesn’t uninstall IE.

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That only removes the IE shortcuts; it doesn’t uninstall IE.

Not in Windows 10. The IE executable is removed from C:program filesInternet Explorer rendering IE unworkable. I suspect thats also true for previou Windows versions but I haven’t verified this.

Jerry

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Although after a cumulative update I often find that the IE executable is gone, I’ve found that you can copy the executable from one Windows 10 to another and it works thereafter (or, at least it has each time I’ve done it, so far). That has been handy on the computers of certain clients who wanted to continue using IE (and thus slowly adapt themselves to Edge).

Image or Clone often! Backup, backup, backup, backup......
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Home Built: Windows 10 Home 64-bit, AMD Athlon II X3 435 CPU, 16GB RAM, ASUSTeK M4A89GTD-PRO/USB3 (AM3) motherboard, 512GB SanDisk SSD, 3 TB WD HDD, 1024MB ATI AMD RADEON HD 6450 video, ASUS VE278 (1920x1080) display, ATAPI iHAS224 Optical Drive, integrated Realtek HD Audio

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