Microsoft is decoupling Cortana and search in an upcoming build for Windows 10.
When the update rolls out, the search function and the voice assistant will be separated in the taskbar.
Splitting Cortana And Search
Dona Sarkar, Windows Insider head at Microsoft, explained the move behind the separation in a blog post.
"This will enable each experience to innovate independently to best serve their target audiences and use cases ... This change is one of several we've made throughout this release to improve your experience in this space, including updating the search landing page design, enhancing your search results, and integrating Microsoft To-Do with Cortana," she said.
This means that the search bar will be dedicated to text queries, while, for obvious reasons, Cortana will be focused on handling voice queries.
Through this implementation, Microsoft will be able to improve the search function more so than before, even though the virtual assistant will likely be used less this way.
What Else To Expect
In preview build 18317, Microsoft is expected to improve the reliability of Start by separating it from ShellExperienceHost.exe and into StartMenuExperienceHost.exe, which is its own process.
Fonts will be more manageable too. To install a font file, all users have to do is drag and drop one into a boxed area on the fonts settings page.
The Windows Insider page will also be simplified. The company says it's to make everything easier, from signing up for the program to setting up new builds in the future.
All these changes are set to roll out sometime in April.
In other related news, Microsoft wants to take passwords out of the picture and put SMS codes in their place instead. That way, users can log into their systems using a unique code each time. Also, Windows 10 recently became the most popular operating system, finally beating Windows 7.
