How can I switch on Cortana on my desktop, says not avail in SA?

airborne

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How can I switch on Cortana on my desktop, says not avail in SA?

And is there a way to run Cortana without all the creepy/invasive indexing of you computer and uploading of that index + search history to MS servers?

I just want internet search and adding reminders etc on desktop, Google can only offer that on mobile or via an open Chrome webpage and then clicking on a mic icon, which is a pita as I use Firefox.
 
Nimz

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Change your region and language settings to US
 
airborne

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Nimz said:
Change your region and language settings to US
Click to expand...
Can't I rather choose UK?
Is it as simple as that and then restart the computer?

How do you stop the index of the computer etc, the option to use Cortana when I first installed win 10 was it needed to index everything and contacts etc and sync/upload them to Microsoft/account, so I skipped it, is it possible to use it without index contacts upload etc?
 
genetic

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Just change your language settings from UK/SA to US English.
 
airborne

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genetic said:
Just change your language settings from UK/SA to US English.
Click to expand...
That's all that's needed, no need to also change my region/location?

Does anyone use Cortana, is it useful? I've been fooled many times in the past by glitzy ****3 that turns out to be a curiosity but otherwise pretty useless.
 
genetic

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airborne said:
That's all that's needed, no need to also change my region/location?

Does anyone use Cortana, is it useful? I've been fooled many times in the past by glitzy ****3 that turns out to be a curiosity but otherwise pretty useless.
Click to expand...

It's as useful as OK Google or Siri... in other words useless unless you want to impress friends or you don't have fingers and need voice control.
 
DominionZA

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genetic said:
It's as useful as OK Google or Siri... in other words useless unless you want to impress friends or you don't have fingers and need voice control.
Click to expand...
OK Google has become a daily tool in my life. I even use it mostly when no one else is around so think i may be missing the "only useful for impressing friends" part.

Extremely useful feature in Android IMO.

EDIT: I find OK Google so useful I am now considering trying Cortana out - just to see if it matches up.
 
Last edited:
genetic

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Mike Smit said:
OK Google has become a daily tool in my life. I even use it mostly when no one else is around so think i may be missing the "only useful for impressing friends" part.

Extremely useful feature in Android IMO.

EDIT: I find OK Google so useful I am now considering trying Cortana out - just to see if it matches up.
Click to expand...

So what do you ask Google to do?

Serious question... :D
 
DominionZA

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In the car waiting for wifey outside a shop (just arrived in Dullstroom). Will respond in detail once we get settled in and I have my notebook setup (and my first whiskey poured).
 
genetic

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Mike Smit said:
In the car waiting for wifey outside a shop (just arrived in Dullstroom). Will respond in detail once we get settled in and I have my notebook setup (and my first whiskey poured).
Click to expand...

I've used it for navigation at times when you can't really look at your phone, which is pretty useful.

/Waiting for the first beer too.
 
airborne

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Mike Smit said:
OK Google has become a daily tool in my life. I even use it mostly when no one else is around so think i may be missing the "only useful for impressing friends" part.

Extremely useful feature in Android IMO.

EDIT: I find OK Google so useful I am now considering trying Cortana out - just to see if it matches up.
Click to expand...

That's my experience too, want that voice control goodness on desktop.
genetic said:
So what do you ask Google to do?

Serious question... :D
Click to expand...
Voice is easier and faster than typing, bottom line. For searches, adding appointment/reminders, dial numbers, open apps. Etc etc.

It's great, in the middle of doing something you can speak the voice search and leave it to do its thing whithout losing your focus, then once you've finished the task you are on you jump to the completed search.

What I would really like is a one button Google Now option on windows desktop(think it's possible on chrome os), a shortcut on the task bar that instantly opens a google now voice window ready to listen to my command.
 
DominionZA

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genetic said:
Google Now is amazing. I'm just so stuck in my old manual ways I find it difficult to vocally tell it what I want to do.
Click to expand...

True that. Google Now is equally important to me on my phone.

In my car, I have an LG G3 as my dedicated nav device. I travel to Hartees (from Edenvale) 3 times a week and found it handy to use Waze to give me traffic info. With the recent update to G/Maps, my preference changed to that instead of Waze.

Now typically, it was phone on, open waze, select Home/Work/School. Now I don't touch my phone. OK Google, Take me to Home/Work/Shangri-La Academy (ye - it gets that right), and off I go. I don't even have to switch the screen on.

Then reminders. I often think of stuff that I need to do on the weekend, when I get home or to the office, etc... Then by the time I arrive, I have forgotten again. With OK Google, I simply say OK Google, set a reminder for when I get home/to work/this Saturday, tonight, whatever, and dictate my reminder. The phone is hooked up to car Wifi and my personal Google account, so I get the reminders on my phone whenever they are supposed to pop up.

If I get stuck in traffic or something, and need to let someone know i am running late : OK Google, send a whatsapp message to blah. Dictate message, send... Done. You can't have a conversation this way as it requires you reading the phone in the car which is a no no, but it's great for sending the once off messages.
And of course, you can make calls too.

The above is used basically daily. Google searches and stuff I don't do so much. From what you can see above, I mainly use it in the car and spend about 2 hours a day 3 times a week in the car, so it's extremely handy. I literally don't touch my phone while driving.
 
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