100 Windows 10 tips and tricks

50. Make Cortana respond to voice commands

For a hands-free operation, click on the Cortana search bar, select Notebook from the left menu, choose Settings, and enable the 'Let Cortana respond to "Hey Cortana"' option.

Now repeat the phrase anytime to activate Cortana.

51. Make Cortana respond only to you

You can now ask Cortana to respond only to your voice. Head back to the Settings in the Notebook and press the 'Learn my voice' button and speak the phrases to teach Cortana your voice.

52. Cortana natural language search

Since Cortana can understand natural language you can use it for complex search tasks. For example, ask Cortana to 'Find pictures from August' and the intelligent assistant will rummage through your local and online files and apply the appropriate filters to fetch results.

Windows 10 tips and tricks

53. Share your preferences with Cortana

You can get better recommendations if you let Cortana know your preferences. For example, open Cortana's Notebook and head to Eat & Drink to define your choice of cuisine, price range and more.

Now repeat the process for other sections as well.

54. Send an email with Cortana

You can also use Cortana to send an email hands-free. Say 'Send an email to [Name]' followed by the message.

Cortana searches for the [Name] in the People app and composes the email with the text you spoke. If you don't wish to make any changes, say 'Send'.

55. Cortana in Edge browser

Cortana can also help you as you browse the Internet. To enable it in Microsoft Edge, go to Settings > Advanced Settings >View Advanced Settings and under 'Privacy and Services' enable 'Have Cortana Assist Me in Microsoft Edge'.

Mayank Sharma

With almost two decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to think he’s TechRadar Pro’s expert on the topic. Of course, he’s just as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.