Some Everyday Uses for Cortana on Windows 10

If you haven't tried Cortana yet on a Windows 10 PC, you really should. Even if you don't have a microphone to use the "Hey Cortana" command, you can still type requests into the Cortana search box in the taskbar.

Learn how to use Cortana every single day.

Open an App

When you're in the middle of a focused work session, it's often faster to let Cortana open programs than doing it yourself. This can be for something as frivolous as launching a music app such to more productive uses like opening Outlook.

Send an Email

When you need to fire off a quick email, Cortana can do it for you when you say, "Send an email."

Using this feature for long messages is not advisable, but it's a great feature for confirming a meeting time or asking a quick question. However, if that quick message becomes more involved Cortana has an option to continue in the Mail app.

News Updates

Cortana can also help find the latest news about a politician, a favorite sports team, a specific company, or many other topics.

Try something like, "Hey Cortana, what's the latest on the New York Jets." Cortana shows a selection of recent stories about the football team and reads the first headline to you. This feature works for most subjects, but sometimes Cortana pushes you off to a web search in the browser instead of presenting top news stories.

Those are just some of the features you can use every day when you're at your desk, but there's far more to Cortana for PCs. Check out everything Microsoft's digital personal assistant can do by clicking on the Cortana search box or icon on the taskbar. Then click on the question mark icon on the left side of the panel that pops up to get a helpful list of possible Cortana commands.