• Stop Popping Up When Scrolling Cortana
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If Windows 10 Start Menu or Search box keeps popping up randomly or opening automatically on its own, here are a few troubleshooting steps you may want to take a look at. This is a weird problem some people are reporting to be facing and there really do not seem to be any answers. Nevertheless, there are a few things you could check on and see if they help resolve your issue.

How to Fix Windows 10 search cortana starts automatically. How do i stop cortana popping up randomly on windows 10. Why cortana start automatically, how to disable it. How to get ride from.

Start Menu keeps popping up or opens randomly

You may try these suggestions in any order you wish.

1] Physically check your WinKey on your keyboard and ensure that there are no particles lodged there and it is functioning properly.

2] Update your Synaptics/Touchpad device drivers and see. If you updated them recently, then rollback the driver and see.

3] Open your TouchPad settings. You will be able to access it via Control panel > Mouse properties & settings. Configure your Touchpad settings like Pressure, etc properly. Did that help? No? Then disable 2-finger & 3-finger scrolling and see. Does unchecking Right Edge Swipe help? If not, you can, set all settings to Default and see. If even this does not help, disable TouchPad and see.

I have displayed Dell Touchpad settings, but you will have to search for similar settings on your device.

4] If you have any third-party Start Menu replacement installed, uninstall it, run System File Checker and see if it helps.

5] Hide Search or Cortana icon in Taskbar and check. Right-click on the taskbar, select Cortana and choose Hidden.

6] If you have 3-finger tap to launch Cortana enabled, disable it and check if that helps you.

7] Use the Windows 10 Start Menu Troubleshooter and see if it helps.

8] Perform a Clean Boot and see if this problem persists. If it does not, then you will have to identify the offending software which is interfering, by trial and error method.

9] Click on the Taskbar Cortana button, open Cortana settings and toggle the Taskbar tidbits switch to the Off position.

10] Completely disable Cortana and see if that helps.

TIP: This post will explain why Windows 10 Start Menu is always opening up after Sleep or Hibernate.

Let us know if any of these suggestions helped you or if you have any other ideas.

See this post if Help windows keep opening automatically.

Related Posts:

Windows 10 has Cortana, which I don't like. I disabled it as soon as I could. However, looking in Task Manager, the process for Cortana is still running, and can't be effectively terminated: ending the task simply results in the process respawning a few seconds later. Using the command

has the same result: the process respawns.

Is there any way to disable Cortana so that the process doesn't keep running in the background, and doesn't respawn if terminated?

ArtOfCodeArtOfCode

9 Answers

The easiest way to disable certain privacy aspects of Cortana is to use a third-party tool such as O&O Software's free ShutUp10.

Part of Cortana, though, is Windows Search, so there would still be an occasional Cortana process such as file indexing. However, there should no longer be any use of the internet by Cortana.

You can remove Cortana completely, if you wish, but that also removes Windows Search (though that might not be an issue if you use a third-party tool such as DocFetcher or Mythicsoft's Agent Ransack, which provide increased search functionality). That said, after a Windows 10 update, expect that Cortana would be reinstalled. Apparently, the only way now to permanently avoid Cortana is to use another OS, such as Linux.

DrMoishe PippikDrMoishe Pippik

Update 2018: Warning about Taskbar Breakage

I just reinstalled Windows 10 Pro and followed all the prescribed steps (both removing Cortana and removing all store apps) and it still works as prescribed.

It bears mentioning that removing Cortana will break the Default Taskbar in weird ways. It doesn't break Windows Search - so Explorer search still works in my experience.

I've, personally, always replaced the default taskbar with Classic Start (linked via Ninite installer) and have no issues in day-to-day Windows usage otherwise.

Update: Remove Cortana via 'TakeOwn'

Apparently, this trick stopped working at some point. I've used @Meferdati's link at some point successfully: winaero: how to uninstall Cortona. It contains a script that does all the work for you, as well as an explanation of how it works.

Below are the steps I've been using, which are very similar to @MC10's answer, except I've always had to 'TakeOwn' to get permissions and I move my files to a different folder (instead of deleting - in case I decide to revert):

1. add TakeOwn to the context menu or (use takeown from the command line).
2. Navigate to C:Windows
3. Create folder SystemApps.bak
4. Use Takeown to gain ownership of c:windowsSystemAppsMicrosoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy
5. (Gain ownership of anything else you want to move)
6. Cut/Paste the folder(s) from SystemApps to SystemApps.bak
7. When the 'Permissions' pop-up appears, switch to Task Manager
8. Kill SearchUI.exe process
9. Switch back and give permission to move the folder

The folder is now in SystemsApps.bak - and you can simply move it back if the need arises.

Original: Remove Cortana via Powershell RemoveAppPackage

First disable it, then uninstall the Cortana app.

Disable it in the search settings:

1. Click the search icon/box in the bottom left
2. click the gear on the left bar

3. Click off next to Cortana/Web Searches

Then uninstall it, as listed here:

In elevated PowerShell:

This is similar to MC10's answer, except that I'm sure the OS will be more accepting of uninstalling it via the 'proper channels' (powershell) instead of renaming the folder.

Windows has fixed it so now you cannot remove '...Cortana_1.6.1.52_ ...'. When this is attempted it states this is part of Windows now and cannot be removed. I guess I will go back to renaming the folder.

I'm using the same uninstall to remove other 'features' like BingNews, BingSports, Etc

Edit: Likewise, you can remove the 'Provisioned' applications (aka: crap that gets installed per user) via this method

Or... to remove ALL Apps that you can, app or provisionedapp, you can do this:

Just a warning: This will uninstall the Windows Store. That's not an issue for me, but uninstalling everything isn't for the faint of heart.

As mentioned in comments, it's probably wise not to completely remove the Windows Store. I haven't tried this yet, but this (in the comments) looks to be ballpark of what I'd use:

Further resource: Delete Windows 10 Apps and Restore Default Windows 10 Apps

WernerCDWernerCD

Cortana is very integrated with Windows Search and fully disabling it will break Search. However, if you would like to keep Search functional, you can just disable the 'Cortana-y' parts of Cortana.

To disable Cortana in windows 10

1. Press Win + R keyboard accelerator to open Run dialog box.
2. Type GPedit.msc and hit Enter or OK to open Local Group Policy Editor.Navigate to Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Search.
3. In the right pane, double click on policy named Allow Cortana.
4. Select the Disabled radio button.
5. Restart the PC and Cortana and Bing Search will be disabled. (May work after signing out and in again)

Policy Description

This policy setting specifies whether Cortana is allowed on the device.

If you enable or don't configure this setting, Cortana will be allowed on the device. If you disable this setting, Cortana will be turned off.

With this set, users will still be able to use search to find things on the device and on the Internet.

Aaron Franke

Disclaimer: Please see WernerCD's answer for an improved method. This will break the search bar/Start search.

After playing around with it a bit, and I think I found a method.

Open Task Manager and have it show More details. Right click on Cortana and select Open file location.

Now find the Cortana folder, right click it, and select Rename. I would recommend just adding '.bak' to the end of the folder name so you can find it easily if you want to restore it back to it's original status.

If you attempt to rename, it will tell you that the folder is in use.

This is when you want to go back to Task Manager, right click on Cortana, and select End task.

Right after the task ends, switch back to the Folder In Use window and click Try Again. The folder should be renamed and the Cortana task will not start again.

Steven M. VascellaroMC10

Stop Popping Up When Scrolling Cortana

MC10

Buried in the privacy policy for Win 10 (expand the Input Personalization section) is:

You can turn off Input Personalization at any time. This will stop the data collection for this feature and will delete associated data stored on your device, such as your local user dictionary and your input history. As Cortana uses this data to help understand your input, turning off Input Personalization will also disable Cortana on your device. At https://www.bing.com/account/personalization, you can also clear data sent to Microsoft, such as your contacts and calendar data, user dictionary, as well as search and browsing history if your device also had Cortana enabled.

According to HowToGeek after installation you can disable this by:

If you have chosen express settings and you want to opt out of some or all of these, all is not lost. You can still go into the settings and change things.

To turn off the first item found in the Personalization settings, you will need to open the Privacy group in Settings and then “Speech, inking, & typing”.

Click or tap “Stop getting to know me”.

I'd strongly recommend disabling it the officially supported way over screwing with an executable. The latter runs both the risk that Windows repair or a future Windows update to Cortana will install a new executable and re-enable it without your knowledge, or that because you removed the file an the update will fail. With consumer versions of W10 not allowing you to opt out of patches this could result in you getting stuck in a reboot loop due to the patch failing to install or lock you out of future security updates because you don't have one of last month's required patches.

Dan NeelyDan Neely

Download the tool called win6x_registry_tweak. Now open a command prompt with admin rights in the folder of the downloaded exe and run this command:

This command removes the 3 cortana packages (Cortana main package, language pack and PAL package):

After a reboot your Windows is cortana free.

ATTENTION. Make a full backup if you later when to restore it to get Cortana back. If you have not done any backup, use those steps to generate the CABs for your Build. Replace Flash with the MUM names of the Cortana packages. You need to generate CABs for all Cortana MUM files like here the x86 MUMs for Build 14393 .

magicandre1981magicandre1981

1. Paste this text into Notepad (ensuring it has 2 line breaks at the end):

2. Save as 'disable cortana.reg' (including the quotes)
3. Run the file you saved (double-click)
4. Reboot your computer

You may still see processes named Cortana running, but these make up the built-in Windows search system (so you can find files, programs and settings from the start menu), not the networked AI assistant and associated>

Stop Cortana Popping Up When Scrolling Video

Restart once manually at the end.

BEYOND install_wim_tweak, THE UGLY PART (WARNING: BREAKS FUTURE WINDOWS UPGRADES BECAUSE OF REASONS.)

Deleting the User-level package is considerably worse. Based on techniques here and there and our Windows cousin the unlock is not to be found in the Registry, but rather a SQLite package-tracking database: C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsAppRepositoryStateRepository-Machine.srd

The above links have some overkill, so the boiled down version is:

1. Stop the StateRepository service: Stop-Service -Name StateRepository -Force
2. Take the necessary ownership and permissions of C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsAppRepository (Owner, Full Control). Use icacls ... /save AclFile first, for later restoration.
3. Copy the database file within: StateRepository-Machine.srd to a scratch area.
4. Using a decent SQLlite editor or even with an open-source PowerShell extension perform the query UPDATE Package SET IsInbox = 0 WHERE PackageFullName LIKE '%Cortana%'
5. Save the result to the database.
6. Copy the database file back into place.
7. Restore the Ownership (icacls ... /restore AclFile)
8. Restart the service: Start-Service -Name StateRepository
9. Confirm it's running: Get-Service -Name StateRepository
10. Remove the package: Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*Cortana*' } Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers

protected by Community♦Aug 8 '15 at 15:52

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