What I'm suggesting is that the website might have the wrong info listed for that setting. I do have other settings toggled, but I've got no firewall rules in place on this system. Network activity is mute for the most part too.
aladdin2006 The mentioned tweak is applicable to Windows 10 Anniversary Update/RS1/version 1607. You can safely apply it.
Works for some, does not for others, like my multiple PCs. It worked just fine on 1511. But it depends, what you consider disabled. I expect the process to be dormant, grayed out.
These are settings that are universal and should work across all builds of Windows 10. If it doesn't work for you then I can only guess that you've applied other "tweaks" that are causing the problem. It could be that you're confusing turning off Cortana with removing it, since you can't remove Cortana without breaking search. Of course you could use a third party start menu to "fix" that issue, but most of the time that's not the answer to the question that people originally asked.
You don't break search, you break the access to search2 trough the new start menu. Search still works as always did since it was introduced in Vista (eg accessing it from the searchbox on the top tight corner of the win explorer windows)
That's kind of nitpicking at my wording though as I'm obviously talking about searching from the taskbar. People have asked how do you turn off Cortana, to which the correct solution has been given. Uninstalling Cortana and then replacing the start menu isn't what most people have been asking for help with.
I just intended to make the argument clear[er]. IMO a broken/missing search is what you get installing the default Thin PC. There the whole thing isn't working at all, and you have to install it separately or rely on a third party search tool, like Agent Ransack, Turbosearcher, or whatever.
I aggree. Additionally, I fear problems with the Windows Updater. It could miss cortana (nice or not nice ) ... What then ?