SOLVED: Video: How To Hard Reset or Remove Cortana In Windows 10

UPDATE: June 2, 2020 – Microsoft has changed the way they manage Cortana so in newer builds of Windows 10 the work is MUCH easier.  See THIS article.

If, like me, your Windows 10 Cortana is non-responsive (or you just don’t want Cortana) we will show you how to remove and re-add Cortana which will perform a hard reset on it.  This is the only real way to repair Cortana fully.

Cortana is hard baked into Windows 10 and there is no interface like ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS AND FEATURES to click and remove or reinstall Cortana.  Cortana is a “modern app” which means every user has their own copy but you can use common tech tool called PowerShell that is built into Windows 10 to add or remove any Modern App and then reinstall it.

SIMPLE VERSION For Techs:

1. Create a new administrator on your Window 10 and sign in as that user
2. Delete (or rename) C:\Users\<PROBLEM USER>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy
   UPDATE : AUG 9 2021 – If that path does not exist try removing:
   C:\Users\<PROBLEM USER>\Local\ Packages\ Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy
   
3. Sign back in as the PROBLEM USER
4. Open PowerShell as an admin and type (or paste)
   Add-AppxPackage -Path “C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\Appxmanifest.xml” -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register

LONG VERSION For Regular Folks:

1. Create a new administrator on your Window 10 and sign in as that user (watch the video if you don’t know how to do this)
2. Launch FILE EXPLORER (the new name for MY COMPUTER) and double click on the VIEW tab
3. Put a check mark in FILE NAME EXTENSIONS and on HIDDEN ITEMS
4. Double click your way through to C:\Users\<CORTANA PROBLEM USER>\AppData\Local\Packages\
5. Delete (or rename) Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy
   or Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy 
   
6. Sign out of your temporary administrator account (in fact you can delete it now if you wish)
7. Sign back in as the user with the Cortana problem
8. Click the START button and scroll down through the apps to the WINDOWS POWERSHELL folder
9. Click on the WINDOWS POWERSHELL folder
10. RIGHT CLICK (very important) on WINDOWS POWERSHELL and select RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR
11. Type in this command and press the ENTER key
    Add-AppxPackage -Path “C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\Appxmanifest.xml” -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register
12. Test Cortana and it should work.

If you want to just remove Cortana altogether, stop at step 7 above.

Having Cortana dead has been annoying me for quite a few builds of Windows 10 Anniversary Update 1607 and I want to thank a few sites for reminding me that Cortana is just a modern app that can be removed through Windows 10 PowerShell, most notably THIS one and THIS one.

We have also written up a similar set of instructions on how to hard reset / repair / remove / Microsoft Edge Browser HERE.