Uninstall Cortana from Windows 10

[themechman]

Most perplexing honestly. So far I've tried twelve different tools that supposedly removed everything but fail to do so.

 

This is more infuriating than Android.

 

At least cortana's not back! WOOHOO!

Edited November 19, 2015 by themechman

[maxXPsoft]

I've installed the 10586 build today and was greeted with all of the unwanted apps I spent an hour removing. To further complicate this, I used powershell to remove them. After a reboot, those items came back... again.

 

I was noticing funny stuff like that. Do as Bernd suggests with W10Privacy. Deactivate Store on Background Apps Tab. Unless you uninstalled it

 

wim_tweak not working with 586. Others it may

 

Noel what you remove it with? I imaged back to clean 586 to test some things

[NoelC]

Noel what you remove it with? I imaged back to clean 586 to test some things

 

Not quite sure what you're asking - as I mentioned (and showed above) sihost.exe continues to run.  The other stuff I removed with PowerShell, via intika's GitHub-hosted instructions, and that still seems to be holding (knocking on wood now).  It survived the cumulative update to 10586.11 last night.

 

 

Keep also in mind I've been through the Task Scheduler with a fine-tooth comb, and have disabled many things.

 

If you're asking how I keep Win 10 from talking to various servers, I have a 3rd party firewall package - Sphinx Windows 10 Firewall Control.  It's not strictly necessary to use 3rd party software, as Windows' own firewall can be reconfigured to block outgoing requests by default, but there is some evidence there are "secret" rules that may not be disableable, and I like the management tools the Sphinx package offers.

 

Setting up a firewall to deny outgoing connection requests by default does require some ongoing effort and may not be for everyone.  Plus it remains to be seen whether there are long-term implications to keeping Windows cut off from what it wants to do.  I haven't been doing it long enough to know, for example, whether the activation will expire.  Research shows that almost certainly Windows 7 can be run that way, and quite likely also Windows 8, but I don't know about 10 yet.

 

-Noel

Edited November 19, 2015 by NoelC

[themechman]

Keeping windows cut off from calling home likely will trigger a Windows genuine advantage activation. I wouldnt put it past them to put something like this in. After all, gotta catch all the people who dont have legit licenses.

[maxXPsoft]

wim_tweak still works but I had to add several more packages

4 of these Microsoft-OneCore-CortanaComponents

3 of these Microsoft-Windows-Cortana

Now its gone except link on Start all apps which can unpin

[maxXPsoft]

Ok finally 100% Metro clean and no Store. Start is clean except what I pin to it like powershell, cmd, IE, I know I resisted but some bad habits are hard to change. Solution to my weather thing, homepage my local weather when I start Fox.

 

Only 2 AppxPackage remain and my Start is working perfectly and fast. No AppxProvisioned

 

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-AppxPackage | Select Name, PackageFullName
Name                                  PackageFullName
Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost_10.0.10586.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy
windows.immersivecontrolpanel         windows.immersivecontrolpanel_6.2.0.0_neutral_neutral_cw5n1h2txyewy

 

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Select DisplayName, PackageName

PS C:\Windows\system32>

 

Think I got this down to 30 minutes with clean install with ESD-ISO dvd except installing my applications I use and then my Games.

 

That ESD install amazed me, no time left at all percent. It just ran and was ready for me to turn off settings in Custom. Wasn't ready for that so I didn't time it

Edited November 24, 2015 by maxXPsoft

[NoelC]

Ah, so you don't actually need Microsoft.AccountsControl to log in?  That's a net reduction of one package over what I ended up with.  Bravo!

 

-Noel

[maxXPsoft]

Ah, so you don't actually need Microsoft.AccountsControl to log in?  That's a net reduction of one package over what I ended up with.  Bravo!

 

-Noel

Yes I had uninstalled it so wasn't sure since you still had it but everything working

Since I see we don't need AppxProvisioned can use the Scorched Earth after Git method

[NoelC]

It's now gone for me too.  TimeBroker and Network Connection Broker have been disabled for over a day as well without apparent ill effect.

 

I noticed Win 10 went all day without trying to make even one unwanted connection online.

 

-Noel

Edited November 26, 2015 by NoelC

[maxXPsoft]

Update 1st post for [Version 10.0.10586]

[opdenis]

This seemed to work better taking down the State ran all at once. Oh well whatever works

taskkill /im sihost.exe /f

FOR /F "usebackq tokens=2 skip=2" %i IN (`tasklist /svc /fi "services eq StateRepository"`) DO taskkill /PID %i /f

FOR /F "usebackq tokens=2 skip=2" %i IN (`tasklist /svc /fi "services eq StateRepository"`) DO taskkill /PID %i /f

FOR /F "usebackq tokens=2 skip=2" %i IN (`tasklist /svc /fi "services eq StateRepository"`) DO taskkill /PID %i /f

del %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository\StateRepository-Machine.*

Hello. When I ran this script (as cmd), it execute "taskkill /im sihost.exe /f" and then stops on "FOR /F "usebackq tokens=2 skip=2" %i IN (`tasklist /svc /fi "services eq StateRepository"`) DO taskkill /PID %i /f"

Other three lines don't execute. Where is the problem?

C:\Users\Denis\Downloads\PSTools>taskkill /im sihost.exe /fSUCCESS: The process "sihost.exe" with PID 3684 has been terminated.i was unexpected at this time.C:\Users\Denis\Downloads\PSTools>FOR /F "usebackq tokens=2 skip=2" i /fC:\Users\Denis\Downloads\PSTools>

Edited December 6, 2015 by opdenis

[jaclaz]

In a batch script the percentage % sign is escaped by doubling it.

 

Example:

on command line:

FOR /L %A IN (1,1,10) ECHO %A

will work, in a batch this needs to become:

FOR /L %%A IN (1,1,10) ECHO %%A

jaclaz

[maxXPsoft]

 

 

Hello. When I ran this script (as cmd), it execute "taskkill /im sihost.exe /f" and then stops on "FOR /F "usebackq tokens=2 skip=2" %i IN (`tasklist /svc /fi "services eq StateRepository"`) DO taskkill /PID %i /f"

Other three lines don't execute. Where is the problem?

 

You don't run in a cmd. I haven't been able to pass the commands through yet to window psexec -i -s cmd opens

I run this Git.cmd here with psec.exe in same folder so it copied to Windows because I have just installed Post 73 above

Copy and Edit my file in say C:\Temp

 

Then paste all that in the psec window it opens

Reason I run them like 3-4 times in a row is it will start back up really quickly. After hitting it like this it delayed it long enough it worked. You may only need 1 time of these 3

taskkill

FOR /F

del %Pr

 

3 more commands after that

copy file back from Temp

del Temp file

sc start StateRepository

 

Last thing shows me I did have it killed cause it did start and didn't tell me it was already running.

[opdenis]

Thank you!

I have ran cmd.exe with admin rights, then have called from there psexec -i -s cmd

From new cmd-window I was able to start this script sihost-kill.cmd:

taskkill /im sihost.exe /fFOR /F "usebackq tokens=2 skip=2" %%i IN (`tasklist /svc /fi "services eq StateRepository"`) DO taskkill /PID %%i /fFOR /F "usebackq tokens=2 skip=2" %%i IN (`tasklist /svc /fi "services eq StateRepository"`) DO taskkill /PID %%i /fFOR /F "usebackq tokens=2 skip=2" %%i IN (`tasklist /svc /fi "services eq StateRepository"`) DO taskkill /PID %%i /fdel c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository\StateRepository-Machine.*copy "C:\Users\Denis\Desktop\StateRepository-Machine.srd" c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository\

Next step was to start your script 10Cortana_Search2.cmd

 

But now I have some errors in my System EventLog:

Unable to start a DCOM Server: CortanaUI as Unavailable/Unavailable. The error:
"2"
Happened while starting this command:
"C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy\SearchUI.exe" -ServerName:CortanaUI.AppXa50dqqa5gqv4a428c9y1jjw7m3btvepj.mca

 

 

And some in my Application EventLog:

Activation of app Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy!CortanaUI failed with error: The specified module could not be found. See the Microsoft-Windows-TWinUI/Operational log for additional information.

 

 

Is there a way to fix them?

Edited December 6, 2015 by opdenis

[maxXPsoft]

I don't have them errors anymore if it was done correctly. Might check your srd file.

I see you from Russia, did you paste right package names?

 

I don't start another script done said that. Have no luck calling a script that works

 Paste in the windows that opens with psexec -i -s cmd

taskkill /im sihost.exe /fFOR /F "usebackq tokens=2 skip=2" %i IN (`tasklist /svc /fi "services eq StateRepository"`) DO taskkill /PID %i /fdel %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository\StateRepository-Machine.*taskkill /im sihost.exe /fFOR /F "usebackq tokens=2 skip=2" %i IN (`tasklist /svc /fi "services eq StateRepository"`) DO taskkill /PID %i /fdel %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository\StateRepository-Machine.*taskkill /im sihost.exe /fFOR /F "usebackq tokens=2 skip=2" %i IN (`tasklist /svc /fi "services eq StateRepository"`) DO taskkill /PID %i /fdel %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepository\StateRepository-Machine.*copy C:\Temp\StateRepository-Machine.srd %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\AppRepositorydel C:\Temp\StateRepository-Machine.srdsc start StateRepository

Also fire up powershell in an admin mode and finish off afterwards. I start the powershell window before cause Start will not work till reboot