Gadgetory

if you want to get things done on Windows 10 without lifting a finger say hello to Cortana Microsoft's virtual assistant lets you complete everyday PC tasks using voice commands I'll show you how to optimize the setup and I'll share some of the most useful voice commands to get started there are two ways to launch Cortana you can either hit Windows CE or you can use the command hey Cortana but you'll have to set that up so head over to the search bar click it and then go to your notebook hit settings and turn on this hey Cortana option the only potential problem is that Cortana will respond to anyone who says hey Cortana so you might want to teach her to only listen to your voice ok let's get started now that you know how to get Cortana to listen you can start bossing her around if you already use a virtual assistant on your iPhone like Siri or Google now or even Cortana on your Windows Phone you probably already know a lot of the commands that will work with Cortana on your PC so here are a few examples hey Cortana what's the weather right now it's 72 and sunny photos of puppies remind me to call the doctor tomorrow at 9 a.m. sure thing remind you to call the doctor at 9 a.m. tomorrow is that right yes great if you ever want to manage or manually enter reminders you can do so by hitting the light bulb in Cortana's interface you can also dig around the system with commands like show me photos I took in November 2014 and there they are and you can launch apps and settings by saying launch settings all right which one do you want one settings or to Lenovo settings one starting settings you'll mostly use Cortana for voice commands but there's also an informational dashboard you can view by clicking the search bar it works a lot like Google now showing you the latest news and weather but also information about your upcoming flights or deliveries if you want to get in there and customize the dashboard you can do that by going back to the notebook and go through all of these categories and adjust your settings for instance I can go to eat and drink and I'll head down and tell Cortana what kind of cuisines I like let's hit Italian at it and from now on Cortana will show me more restaurant recommendations that are of the Italian variety there's a lot more Cortana can do but hopefully this gives you a solid primer to get started you can also check out more Windows 10 tips plus some Cortana Easter eggs at cnet.com