When you ask Cortana a straightforward question or issue a straightforward command, Cortana displays the result onscreen and reads it to you. Once you start the app, to perform a Cortana search, you say “Hey Cortana” and speak your search, or click the Cortana icon to the right of the search box and speak, or press the Windows key + C and speak or type. You can start it by clicking the Cortana icon in the taskbar just to the right of the search box, pressing the Windows key + C, or saying “Cortana.” So the only way to use Cortana is to run the app. And then Microsoft went ever further and turned Cortana into its own app that works like any other Windows 10 app, including running in a resizable window that can be moved around the screen. First, Microsoft separated Cortana from the Windows search box. Cortana used to be integrated in the Windows search box: Whether you performed a search by speaking or typing, the results were delivered in the Cortana pane. If that’s the case for you, see the “Cortana and search” section of Computerworld’s “ Windows 10 cheat sheet” or the Cortana section of our Windows Update review.īefore we head into the tips, we should cover a bit of background. Note that this article covers tips for Cortana in the Windows Update (version 21H1), so if you have a different version, things may look different or may not work. To help you get the most out of Cortana, I’ve put together some of my favorite tips for using it - including using Cortana to manage your Google Calendar and to send you reminders. No matter which version you use, though, it’s a very useful tool and can do a lot for you, including alerting you to upcoming meetings searching your PC and the web telling you about the weather, news, and sports and a lot more. Depending on which version of Windows you’re using, it may be integrated directly into the Windows Search box, or run as an entirely separate app. Over the years, it’s had new features added, and then others taken away. But it was launched back in December 2015, and it’s changed quite a bit since then. Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana was one of the major additions to Windows 10 when it first came out.

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