One of the coolest features of Microsoft's latest Windows 10 operating system is the personal virtual assistant Cortana. Unfortunately, not everyone who upgrades to Windows 10 gets a chance to check out Cortana. Currently only users in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and China have Cortana enabled on upgrade. Although Microsoft has announced that Cortana will eventually rollout in the near future to other countries if you live in any part of the world other than the precious 7 mentioned above, you may feel frustrated at the inability to get the hands on the awesome Cortana experience.
But that doesn’t mean you have to be left out in the sidelines. You can still get Cortana by tweaking a few settings. Let’s see how to enable Cortana in Windows 10 no matter where you are.
How to Enable Cortana on Windows 10 in any Country
1. To know whether or not Cortana is available in your copy of Windows 10, click the Search box on the taskbar.
2. In the pop up pane, select the Settings (Gear) icon.
3. If Cortana is not available, you’ll see a message telling you that Cortana is not available in your region.
To enable and use Cortana in the country you live in, you must set your Windows 10 PC to use the following language, and region settings:
1. Set a Cortana Supported Language
1. Go to Settings and select Time & language.
2. Select the Region & language tab.
3. Select a supported country, let’s say United States.
4. Next you must add a supported language, let’s add US English. To do this, click Add a language to download the English (United States) language pack.
5. When the download is complete, select English (United States) and click Options.
6. In the next screen, download the Speech option.
7. Once that download is complete, click Settings.
8. You will be taken to the Speech tab in the Time and Language screen. Here you can select the Speech language as English (United States).
9. Next, check the Recognize non-native accents for this language checkbox.
10. In the Text to Speech section, you can select a default voice for the app and do a preview.
2. Set a Cortana Supported Country
1. If you haven’t done so already, you must go to the Region & language tab and select the country of the language you downloaded, in this case, the United States.
That’s it! Now its time to enable Cortana.
1. Click the Search box. You will see some preliminary information about Cortana. Click Next and agree to Microsoft’s terms and conditions. Next, let Cortana know your name or nickname. Then give Cortana access to your location.
2. Now that you’ve set and met Cortana, you can start dictating to her and get things done more easily.
- NOTE: If you attempt the following steps, you may encounter certain login or network issues. Please attempt this at your own risk.
Final thoughts
Setting up Cortana to work in a non supported country is just a little time consuming and roundabout. But if you’re really keen on getting the most out of your virtual assistant, these steps should be no trouble at all to do.
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