Windows 10 technical preview build 9926 has been released last January and it’s the first release of the technical preview in 2015. If you’ve not been following the latest news about Microsoft lately then it’s helpful to be aware that Windows 10 will be the successor to Windows 8/8.1 and yes there’s no Windows 9. With this release of Windows Microsoft is taking a new approach, they’ve released technical previews that are free to download and they collect feedback from the users. You can also participate in that but it’s highly recommended to do that on secondary machine or in VirtualBox and not on your primary machine.
Cortana, Windows answer to Apple’s Siri, can be used to set reminders, answer questions using information from Bing such as sports scores and traffic conditions. Cortana is named after an artificial intelligence character in Microsoft’s video game, Halo.
This post will cover Cortana which is Microsoft personal assistant in Windows 10 technical preview 9926 in depth, it’ll inform you with the ins and outs of it and how to make the most out of it and to properly control it. Before starting it’s worth noting that to have access Cortana you’ve to access Windows 10 using your Microsoft account (any email on Hotmail/outlook) and not an offline account.
First: How to Access Cortana
Cortana sits on the taskbar as seen from the screenshot below.
Second: What Cortana is Supposed to Do
You might be wondering about the title; what does “supposed to do” means it means that Cortana will be capable to handle a lot in the future; write emails, text messages, open files on your computer or on one drive, etc. But in its current status it does nothing from that.
Third: What Cortana can Do
In this build of Windows 10, Cortana actually does nothing but pulls information using Bing which is Microsoft search engine. You can also ask it some simple questions and you can even ask her to tell you jokes! And it’ll.
Fourth: Access Cortana Settings
First, it’s useful to know how to access the settings for Cortana, to do that you click on the Cortana search box and the click on the hamburger menu on the top left corner seen below.
Fifth: Cortana Settings
Cortana settings gives you access to; changing the name by which Cortana calls you, activate “Hey Cortana” keyword and tracking info (e.g. flight times, packages, etc.).
Sixth: Cortana Notebook
All of the previous is great, but how about privacy, well Microsoft has though of that and created Cortana’s Notebook where you shall find every information Cortana know about you to access the notebook; to access the notebook for Cortana; click on the Cortana search box and the click on the hamburger menu on the top left corner seen below then choose notebook.
Now, you can access everything Cortana knows about you, and if you so concerned about your privacy you can close Cortana all together by just logging to Windows without your Microsoft account.
That was everything that Cortana can do for now and she will be capable of doing in the following updates and new builds of Windows 10.
