Microsoft begins pulling the plug on Cortana

Microsoft has begun following through on its promise to kill off Cortana, the AI assistant that debuted in Windows 10. Microsoft's recent Windows Insider build in the Dev channel turns off Cortana, which only appears as an app within the Microsoft Store. If you apply an available update to the Cortana app, that will essentially turn it off: You'll receive a message saying that Cortana has been deprecated -- programmer-speak for turning off a specific feature. Microsoft had made its intentions clear: In June, the company said that it would begin ending support for the Cortana app in August. That doesn't mean Cortana is entirely gone.