Cortana is an extremely useful personal assistant feature that comes with Windows 10. You can interact by typing in your query, or by using a microphone to ask by simply speaking your request. You can do things like manage your calendar, check the weather or simply search the web - it's a great tool.
October 2017 Update:
Microsoft have made significant changes to how Cortana operates, so it is now not possible to enable or disable it with a small change. It either requires a registry edit or group policy chance (if using a Pro edition), so to re-enable Cortana you will be required to manually undo the steps you took to disable it in the first place.
If you are using a Home edition or made a registry change, you will likely want to check the following location within the registry to make sure Cortana isn't disabled:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search
The "AllowCortana" DWORD should have a value of "0" if disabled, or "1" to enable it.
If you have a Pro edition of Windows 10, Cortana may be disabled via a Group Policy. Open the Group Policy editor and navigate to:
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search
Then make sure "Allow Cortana" is set to "Enabled".
October 2017 Update:
Microsoft have made significant changes to how Cortana operates, so it is now not possible to enable or disable it with a small change. It either requires a registry edit or group policy chance (if using a Pro edition), so to re-enable Cortana you will be required to manually undo the steps you took to disable it in the first place.
If you are using a Home edition or made a registry change, you will likely want to check the following location within the registry to make sure Cortana isn't disabled:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search
The "AllowCortana" DWORD should have a value of "0" if disabled, or "1" to enable it.
If you have a Pro edition of Windows 10, Cortana may be disabled via a Group Policy. Open the Group Policy editor and navigate to:
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search
Then make sure "Allow Cortana" is set to "Enabled".
