back to article Cortana to form circle of life in Windows 10

Microsoft has revealed more details of just how its personal assistant Cortana will work in Windows 10. The assistant's been given a visual representation based on circles, with the variations at the top of the story representing Cortana in different moods and when performing different tasks. The circles will appear as …

  1. Tromos

    The charm offensive seems a touch light on the charm component.

    1. Rich 11

      Little charm, but much strangeness.

      1. Eddy Ito
        Coat

        Up to the top or down to the bottom, Cortana is a quark of a different colour.

        The one with baryons in the pocket

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. AMBxx Silver badge
    Joke

    Cortana Says

    It looks like you're writing a letter. Can I help?

    I think we should be told if any of Cortana's code comes from Clippy and friends.

  4. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Happy

    Yes But...

    Microsoft has revealed more details of just how its personal assistant Cortana will work in Windows 10

    Ok, hands up all those here that will turn this off right after installation?

    Or will MS make it respond...

    "I'm sorry Dave, I can't allow that."

    When we try.

    1. returnmyjedi

      Re: Yes But...

      If you ask Cortana to sing you a song she bangs out "Daisy, Daisy" (amongst others).

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: Yes But...

        To turn Cortana off, open Cortana's NotebookCortana's Notebook icon > Settings, turn Cortana off Toggle off icon, then restart your phone.

        Compared to some settings I've seen in the past, that seems pretty straightforward. No floating around in a red-lit micro-gravity environment required!

        Sidenote: Both Kubrick and Clarke thought that HAL's 'brain' would be no larger than a shoe-box, but Kubrick decided to represent it as room-sized purely for cinematic reasons.

        1. Squander Two

          Re: Yes But...

          Cortana on WP 8.1 seems to be fairly clever but does nothing whatsoever if location services are turned off. Fuck knows why it needs your GPS coordinates to find a music file on your phone or set an alarm. Anyway, it does make it extremely easy to switch off: just turn off GPS. Since I keep my GPS off all the time anyway unless I'm using a map and actually want to know which bit of the planet I'm standing on (surely the only reason one would ever need it), I've only played with Cortana for a few minutes.

        2. fung0

          Re: Yes But...

          To turn Cortana off, open Cortana's NotebookCortana's Notebook icon > Settings, turn Cortana off Toggle off icon, then restart your phone.

          Isn't it just a bit disturbing that Cortana can't flush herself out of your system without a reboot? Typical MS design: monolithic instead of modular, intrusive instead of respectful.

          1. dogged

            Re: Yes But...

            > Isn't it just a bit disturbing that Cortana can't flush herself out of your system without a reboot?

            It's understandable when you bear in mind that when the Cortana app is installed in Windows Phone it comes via update (hence reboot) and attaches itself to the hardware "Search" key. When you switch Cortana off, the reboot sets the "Search" key back to Bing.

    2. dogged

      Re: Yes But...

      > Or will MS make it respond..."I'm sorry Dave, I can't allow that."

      That's actually "her" response to "Cortana, open the pod bay doors".

      I don't find Cortana to be all that much use (except for reading out my text messages to me over bluetooth when I'm in the car) but I am fully prepared to admit that it's my own fault. The "notebook" allows you to select what the service "knows" about you and I really don't allow it to know very much at all.

      So, excellent for granular control but self-defeating if you want the full "intelligent assistant" thing. But I've never had the intelligent assistant so I don't miss it.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Yes But...

        That's actually "her" response

        "It" - it's not a real person. Sorry to spoil your romance.

        1. dogged

          Re: Yes But...

          Hence quotes.

          Sorry to spoil your smug moment.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Yes But...

            Just keeping it real ;)

    3. Daedalus801
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: Yes But...

      "Ok, hands up all those here that will turn this off right after installation?"

      I hope that we have the option to turn this off BEFORE installation !!

      default = all the BLOAT microsoft can throw at you

      Custom = allowing you to install a small fast OS base with minimal rubbish on top.

      NO Cortana

      NO Xbox integration.

      NO linked Microsoft Account When logging on locally.

      NO defaulting to share everything and save to the Cloud by DEFAULT.

      Just a basic good stable machine like i currently use on Windows 7 (after a bit of Litening) like i would allow users to run in the Office, just @ home.

      LETTING THE CUSTOMER CHOOSE i know its such an outdated concept but GUESS what IT WORKS !!!!!!!!!!

  5. DrXym

    It's so soothing

    You don't even feel the personal data being sucked out of you.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: It's so soothing

      This is an area in which Microsoft are hoping they can distinguish themselves from Google - 'filling a gap in the market', so to speak. Certainly the user seems to have more granular control over what information (location, browsing history, emails, FaceBook etc) Cortana uses.

      http://www.windowsphone.com/en-gb/how-to/wp8/cortana/cortana-and-my-privacy-faq

  6. hplasm
    Meh

    What is the Swahili for

    Steaming pile of spyware?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What is the Swahili for

      Google

    2. fung0

      Re: What is the Swahili for

      Earlier this week, I might have said "Samsung."

      Why is everyone bent out of shape about a TV that listens to your conversation, but perfectly cool with mobile devices that literally brag about analyzing your every thought and action, and sending that information back to Apple or Microsoft?

  7. illiad

    I can see hordes of people compiling 'remove Cortana now!' as we speak.... LOLOLOL

  8. Nathan 13

    Will she

    Do anything useful, like make me a cup of tea or do the hoovering?

    1. dogged

      Re: Will she

      No.

      But neither will Siri or Google Now. Maybe Blackberry should work on one that can make tea and do the hoovering. That'd boost their sales.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: Will she

        Well, there was that batch of Li-Ion batteries that combusted, used by a few phone vendors... they were capable of boiling a cup of water!

        "Cortana: Please order me a Teasmaid and a Roomba from Amazon".

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Will she

      "like make me a cup of tea or do the hoovering?"

      No you need a real woman for that.

  9. Paul Shirley

    wow, Android support...

    ...so I can start the day talking to the android phone next to my bed in the morning?

    I fear ms will be disappointed when I don't rush out and replace my phones and tablet with win10 devices, even if it works much better than the utterly incompetent google now ;)

    Or allow Cortana to infest my PCs. Given their history deeply embedding unwanted and insecure apps in the core os that might become a problem :(

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    “She will learn your preferences, provide quick access to information, and make recommendations personalized for you.”

    Let's hope she's got a good index of pron then.

  11. jake Silver badge

    Good fucking gawd/ess.

    Idiots brought up on, and identifying with, "The Lion King" are now in charge of projects at microsoft? Will the next desktop be Barbie/PinkPrincess themed?

    Redmond has clearly lost the plot.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: Good fucking gawd/ess.

      jake, there is no mention anywhere in the article about Microsoft making any reference to the Lion King - those are references made by The Register. Read it again.

      (The Lion King is a Disney property - the largest shareholder in Disney was CEO of a big mobile device and compute company, but that company wasn't Microsoft).

      1. dogged

        Re: Good fucking gawd/ess.

        Surely you don't expect jake to actually find out what he's angry about?

  12. Sir Sham Cad

    "Sensitive" and "Abashed"

    ARGH! It's a piece of software, stop trying to anthropomorphise it by pretending it has moods! The whole point of having a piece of equipment is that it does its job and you don't need to care about how it's "feeling".

    Most of those all look the bloody same, too!

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: "Sensitive" and "Abashed"

      >The whole point of having a piece of equipment is that it does its job and you don't need to care about how it's "feeling".

      Ideally not. However, many of us here will be attuned to the noises our computers make - whirring fan noise or high hard-disk activity, for example, might alert us to an out of control process.

  13. Yugguy

    "Cortana in different moods "

    So, once a month, will she refuse to do anything and hide under a duvet?

    1. AMBxx Silver badge
      Joke

      Re: "Cortana in different moods "

      You, sir, are driving a pink bus on behalf of the Labour Party and I claim my £5

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Really, do they think business can allow this sort of cr*p?

    "DPA, DPA, DPA, DPA, DPA..."

    Come along, sing it with me...

    "DPA, DPA, DPA.... do dah ba dee... DPA, DPA, DPA..."

    Where I work it will just be banned.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Finally there is a good news for the keen users of the windows operating system. Microsoft has now started providing free updations to windows 7 or 8 or 8.1 to users to windows 10 but this update is free only for one year. Eventually after that you will have to pay for it. Indeed this is a good trick of Microsoft to make money and let more and more users and organisations to use latest versions and facility provided by the hard working software geeks. On one hand some interesting features like new web browser “Spartan” has been introduced whereas on the other hand many new updates to apps has been released free of cost. So windows users might be very happy. Let’s see what else Microsoft brings for us in future.

  16. Rob G.
    Megaphone

    We should stop getting up in arms when Microsoft copies something new to their OS.

    As long as it does not record and send information to Microsoft when you're not expecting it to, I don't see why people would get all up in arms about it. It seems like its laggy now but, it's still in beta and that's to be expected, and what I was expecting when I joined the insider program. I would however like to see Cortana become voice control for my PC, because it would be neat to do quick things via voice while doing more intensive tasks with the keyboard and mouse.

    If Microsoft can accomplish this without snooping too much, I say Cortana is a step in the right direction. With touch screens becoming ubiquitous, it seems logical that voice control does too.

  17. soldinio
    Childcatcher

    That's not right........

    An article involving M$, embedded software that monitors preferences, history, location etc. and not a single black helicopter icon or "think of the children". Are the commentards on holiday or something?

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