Cortana is either Windows 10’s most useful or most intrusive feature depending on who you ask. For those of you who find it to be the latter, perhaps due to the digital assistants constant attempts to track you, you’ll be pleased to know that not only can you disable Cortana, Microsoft provides some tools to remove any information that Cortana has collected on you from Microsoft’s servers. 

Cortana, Microsoft’s smart, snarky digital assistant, is one of the highlight features of Windows 10, imbuing the operating system with a sense of presence that never existed in previous versions of Windows. Cortana’s natural language search capabilities rock, and her intelligent surfacing of news and notifications that matter to you help to tailor Windows 10 to suit your specific needs. I’m in love already. But not everyone will take kindly to Cortana. Cortana’s usefulness stems from her connectedness. The assistant taps Bing for web searches and Microsoft’s machine learning in the cloud to deliver those awesome personalization features. The more Cortana knows about you, your location, your friends, and your calendar and email, the better she’s able to provide a personally tailored experience. But all that data you’re shoveling at Cortana travels straight through Microsoft. Fortunately, Microsoft provides you with tools to disable Cortana and erase your footprint in its servers if you’re so inclined. (And Microsoft deserve props for doing so!) Here’s how.