Additional information covers how to prevent Cortana from recording and storing your search habits and history.

In the upper-left corner of the Cortana app, select thethree vertical dots.

You’ll need to reboot your PC to apply the changes.

Selecting to open the menu in the Cortana app.

After rebooting, repeat steps 1-3.

Turn offLet Cortana respond to “Cortana” keyword.

Alternatively, use the keyboard shortcutWindows+R.

Selecting Settings in the Cortana app in Windows 10.

If a User Account Control (UAC) window appears, selectYesto proceed.

Navigate toHKEY_Local_Machine>SOFTWARE>Policies>Microsoft>Windows, then right-click theWindowsdirectory and selectNew>Key.

Name the new folderWindows Search.

Selecting Keyboard shortcut setting in Cortana in Windows 10.

Right-click theWindows Searchfolder and selectNew>DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Name the new fileAllowCortana.

Double-click theAllowCortanafile to open it, set the value to0, then selectOK.

Turning off the Keyboard shortcut setting in Cortana.

PressWindows+Rto fire up the command prompt, typegpedit.mscinto the command line, and then pressEnter.

Navigate toComputer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Windows Components>Search, then double-clickAllow Cortanain the right pane.

SelectDisabled, then selectOK.

Selecting the Voice activation setting in Cortana.

Scroll down toHistoryand turn offSearch history on this gear.

SelectClear machine search historyto clear Cortana search history.

In theFind a setting search, enterspeech privacy settingsand selectSpeech privacy controls.

Selecting Voice activation permissions in Cortana.

Turn offUse your voice for dictation and other apps using Microsoft’s online speech recognition technology.

If you wish to use Cortana in the future, change all of the prefs back to theOnposition.

On the taskbar, right-click theCortanaicon, then deselectShow Cortana Button.

Turning off voice activation for Cortana.

Type regedit and press Enter on the keyboard.

Navigate to HKEY_Local_Machine > SOFTWARE > Policies > Microsoft > Windows, then right-click the Windows directory and select New > Key.

Name the new folder Windows Search.

Right-click the Windows Search folder and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Name the new file AllowCortana

Double-click on AllowCortana, set the value to 0, then select OK.

Press Windows + R to open the command prompt, type gpedit.msc into the box, and then press Enter.

Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search, then double-click Allow Cortana in the right pane.

Select Disabled, then select OK

Type permissions and history in the Windows search box and select Permissions & history.

Select Search history on this device.

Searching for Speech privacy settings,

Online speech recognition toggle.