Using Cortana: Your Personal Digital Assistant

Mar 14, 2018

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Searching with Cortana

Once you’ve set up Cortana to hear you when you say, “Hey Cortana,” you can ask for help in searching for anything. You can also ask a variety of other questions that can help you organize and manage your day. Phrase your question in a regular sentence-style question; Cortana asks for more information if it doesn’t understand.

So What Is Microsoft Listening In On?

The user agreement language for Cortana tells you that Microsoft needs your permission to collect and use your location information, as well as data about your contacts, your voice input, information from your email messages and texts, your browser history and search history, your calendar details, and other information. Surely they need your shoe size, too? In this day and age, collecting too much information makes some users wary, and that’s understandable. But Microsoft is gathering usage data (and no doubt will be marketing products in a way that makes good use of that data), and if you don’t mind the company being up front about it, click I Agree and start having fun with Cortana.

You can take a look at the information Cortana is collecting by clicking Settings in the navigation bar on the left of the Cortana panel and then clicking Permissions & History. Click the Change What Cortana Knows About Me in the Cloud link to review the interests, places, search history, and more information Cortana has collected and saved to personalize your experience.

Seek and Find with Cortana

When you’re ready to search for something, you can wake Cortana up by saying, “Hey Cortana!” Or, if you prefer (if someone is listening on the other side of the cubicle wall), you can click in the Search box and type the word or phrase you’re looking for.

Say, “Hey Cortana!” or click the microphone icon on the right side of the Search box. (If Cortana doesn’t respond to your voice, click the Settings tool in Cortana and make sure the Hey Cortana slider is set to On.)

Speak up!

After you’ve turned on the Hey Cortana setting so the tool is able to respond to your voice commands, Windows might prompt you to set up your microphone. If you see the Set Up Your Mic message box, click Next, read the sentences the prompt displays, and click Finish to complete setting up your microphone. Cortana should now be ready for your voice commands.
When you see Listening displayed in the box, tell Cortana what to search for (for example, “Find a Thai restaurant nearby”).

What’s That?

If Cortana isn’t hearing you properly, click the small microphone tool on the right side of the Search box. This opens the Cortana tool, and you can tell Cortana what you’re looking for.
Cortana instantly displays a results page with a selection of search results that match what you’re searching for. Click the result that looks most promising.
Click the map if you want to use the Maps app to find the route to the location.

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