Microsoft begins pulling the plug on Cortana

Microsoft has begun following through on its promise to kill off Cortana, the AI assistant that debuted in Windows 10.

Microsoft’s recent Windows Insider build in the Dev channel turns off Cortana, which only appears as an app within the Microsoft Store. If you apply an available update to the Cortana app, that will essentially turn it off: You’ll receive a message saying that Cortana has been deprecated — programmer-speak for turning off a specific feature.

Microsoft had made its intentions clear: In June, the company said that it would begin ending support for the Cortana app in August. That doesn’t mean Cortana is entirely gone. Microsoft did say that Cortana will still be available within Outlook Mobile and various versions of Teams, including Microsoft’s conferencing solution, Teams Rooms. 

Instead, Microsoft appears to be backing Windows Copilot, which brings AI into Windows 11 via a web interface to Bing Chat. The problem is that while Cortana debuted in Windows 10 (!) as an AI assistant that could author email, set reminders, and search the web, many of these features have yet to make it into Windows Copilot. Copilot, while a sophisticated search engine, can’t really do any more than the Cortana app can do right now.

Microsoft hasn’t commented further on its decision to kill off Cortana, but it’s likely testing the deprecation of the app in the Dev Channel to determine if its absence will provoke any additional bugs within your PC. The company still maintains a Cortana page, including what you can do with Cortana on Windows. If the current deprecation process goes smoothly, however, expect Cortana to quietly fade away on the remaining userbase of Windows PCs.

Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor

As PCWorld’s senior editor, Mark focuses on Microsoft news and chip technology, among other beats. He has formerly written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.

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