Windows 11 to give users the ability to easily get rid of Cortana (and it's about time)

We know Cortana is on its way out, to make way for Microsoft's new AI assistant Copilot in Windows 11, but we've just seen a welcome new option in the OS to make it easy to get rid of Cortana.

As XenoPanther highlighted on Twitter (spotted by Neowin), the new preview build 25905 has an option to uninstall Cortana.

In other words, the ailing digital assistant can be removed just as with any other app in Windows 11.

Just head to the Start menu, find Cortana, right-click on the app, and click 'Uninstall' to do just that.

Of course, this only works for those on the earliest test build of Windows 11 right now (namely the Canary channel). But clearly, this is going to be a change that'll be carried through to the release version of Microsoft's OS.

As mentioned at the outset, Microsoft's Copilot AI will make Cortana redundant (or even more redundant, some folks might argue) when it turns up in Windows 11. The rumor mill believes that Copilot could arrive later this year, in Windows 11's 23H2 update, but we're far from convinced. (Frankly, Copilot just seems too barebones in testing right now to be remotely ready for release - and the fact that 23H2 will be an enablement package suggests it won't be a big update, too).

However, Cortana is undoubtedly on its way out this year, as Microsoft has said as much. Not long after Copilot was first revealed, the software giant announced that from late 2023, Cortana will no longer be supported as a standalone app in Windows.

So it makes perfect sense to give folks the option of dumping the assistant with just a one-click uninstall, rather than having to fiddle around using the Terminal to remove Cortana from Windows 11 (another method of uninstallation, as pointed out by Neowin).