Cortana is toast!

... predicts Paul Thurrott, technology journalist and professional MS fanboy.

Windows Weekly is the definitive podcast if you are a Microsoft fanboy.

I have learned a lot from them over the years. But since Win 10, I hardly ever tune in. I did so this time because I wanted info about how Windows will be affected by the recently discovered flaws in Intel processors.

This is the year of the digital assistant, as evidenced by the presence of Google Home and Amazon Alexa related devices at CES.

Cortana is toast because it is only on Windows PCs. For the most part, people don’t talk to their PCs.

People want Alexa and Google home. One way MS can save Cortana is to have it interface with these other services.

MS is late to the table, once again. (Windows phone, anyone?)

I have no sympathy for MS. Win 10 is an MS-centered platform (e.g., for advertising and spying), and not a user-centered design. The forced "free" upgrades caused a lot of misery. (It reminds of 10 years ago when they put 64-bit Vista onto early machines that just couldn’t handle it, like AMD Semprons.)

Cortana is disabled on my Win 10 systems. Any system I use for production runs Win 8.1.

I often use Dragon Naturally Speaking to dictate letters and long documents. I do not use it to control the PC or to make corrections to documents. (Much easier to use keyboard and mouse for control and editing. Your mileage will vary.)

I don’t use any digital assistant devices because there’s so much noise around here (always playing a podcast or music) that my voice would not reach the microphone for random queries. Also, I can click on my Weather Channel icon and read the info faster than talking and listening to a device.