Like Apple’s Siri and Google’s Google Now, Cortana is an intelligent personal assistant that assists you with a variety of tasks such as making phone calls, setting reminders, as well as searching for files. All of this is possible, with the right commands of course. In order to fully utilize Cortana, we’ve created an unofficial list of things you can ask or say to Cortana on Windows 10 devices.

Hey, Cortana Before asking her to do anything, we need to get Cortana's attention by clicking or tapping the Cortana button on the taskbar. If you do not see Cortana on your taskbar, right-click the taskbar and go to Cortana > Show Cortana icon. To enable 'Hey, Cortana', simply say "Hey, Cortana," followed by your question. If you're using a Windows Phone, you can press and hold the search button to activate Cortana.

Basics tasks If you’re looking to launch a program or open a website, simply use the word ‘Launch’ or ‘Open’ followed by the website’s name. Make notes by uttering the words ‘take a note’ or ‘note it down’. As for making drafts, start with ‘Write an’ followed by email or text and end with the contact name and the message itself. Lastly, ‘Show me emails from [contact]’ will display all the texts or emails sent from the specified contact.

Scheduling/Reminders It’s important for small- and medium-sized business owners to stay on top of their schedules. Take a glance at your calendar events with commands such as ‘How’s my schedule looking?’ or ‘What do I have next week?’. Add or move appointments with ‘Add’ or ‘Move’ followed by the appointment and time. Reminders are easily scheduled by uttering the words ‘Remind me’ followed by whatever you need to be reminded about and when.

Search If you can’t locate the file you need, don’t worry. By asking Cortana to ‘Find’ a document, video, or picture on your device from a specific time frame, she will sift through everything quickly to find what you need. You can easily initiate search queries with ‘Can you find’ followed by whatever you are looking for. You can even look at basic search results without having to open a browser window: Simply ask whatever question you have and enjoy combing through the results.

Window’s voice-activated personal assistant, Cortana, helps you accomplish daily tasks with ease and efficiency -- but only if you use the right commands. If you have further questions or would like to know more Cortana commands, feel free to contact us. We’re ready to help!