Products · Product
Cortana
Raised as a usability problem by 35 people on Hacker News over 10 years (2015–2024), in 18 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
- 1Cannot turn Cortana off or disable itUnreviewed
Every issue, all time, most people first
Cannot turn Cortana off or disable itUnreviewed
20152026- Once accidentally run, Cortana can't be exited and its UI pushes the user to enable it2022-11-07
- Cortana is hard to rip out of the OS2022-03-21
- Cortana slows down Windows key search enough to be frustrating2019-11-17
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 37 complaints
- Voice assistant is so unusable that people don't want to use it2024-07-31
- Once accidentally run, Cortana can't be exited and its UI pushes the user to enable it2022-11-07
- Cortana is hard to rip out of the OS2022-03-21
- Hard to find how to turn off voice activation, took 15 minutes2020-10-26
- Can't tell which elements are clickable or editable2020-08-01
- Cortana slows down Windows key search enough to be frustrating2019-11-17
- Complex requests fail and default to web search results2019-11-17
- Couldn't figure out how to turn Cortana on2019-11-17
- Search box hangs and ignores input when internet is down, blocking opening cmd2018-04-28
- Cortana stays visible in the taskbar even after being disabled2018-04-17
- Repeated nagging popup pushes user toward enabling Cortana despite declining2018-03-27
- Results reorder just before click, so users hit the wrong item2018-01-31
- Search tries to guess intent and searches the internet instead of local items2017-11-23
- Search results change unpredictably with typing speed and partial input, so the wanted result can't be reached2017-11-23
- Flows break at organizational seams between teams, so no one owns the overall experience2017-11-23
- Typing an app name opens the wrong default option, offering to reinstall an installed app2017-11-23
- Notification pushes users into a bad manual tracking-number entry flow2017-11-23
- A bug stopped apps being indexed after install, so they could not be found2017-11-22
- Relationship between Notebook settings and Home cards is subtle and easy to miss2017-11-22
- Voice commands are as hard to get right as typed command-line input2017-11-22
- Cannot find installed programs by name2017-11-22
- No easy way to completely uninstall Cortana in Windows 102017-11-22
- Fails to find installed apps by name and pushes web results instead2017-11-22
- Doesn't tell the user whether a voice command was accepted2017-11-22
- Pressing enter on a program opens a web search instead of the program2017-11-22
- Voice commands lag badly and often re-ask the question or fail to act2017-11-22
- Misunderstands speech, forcing users to repeat themselves and feel stupid2017-11-22
- Turning off Cortana requires elevated PowerShell and takes a long time to figure out2017-09-27
- Voice assistant is so deeply built into the OS it is hard to avoid2017-09-16
- Saying "open" to switch assistants feels clumsy; each should respond to its own wake word2017-08-30
- Microsoft pushes its features too heavily, forcing Cortana on people2016-08-17
- Cannot turn Cortana off; no way to disable it2016-08-15
- Can't find any option to view or delete stored voice data2016-07-21
- App is choppy and slow, and voice search doesn't work2015-12-10
- IOS app link is hard to find, even on the main Cortana page2015-12-09
- Account sign-up takes many screens and steps, which is frustrating2015-12-09
- Refuses to work even when the user interface language is English2015-12-09