🔄 Migrate from Cortana to Copilot

Easy15-25 minutesAI Integration & Assistant Management

Last updated: October 23, 2025

Cortana is retired: save your reminders, remove Cortana and its leftovers, and set up Copilot with voice commands, Outlook and the Copilot key.

Overview

Cortana is being retired. Learn how to migrate your settings and routines to Windows Copilot.

What's actually changing as Cortana is replaced by Copilot

Cortana and Copilot are built on genuinely different technology — Cortana followed a more fixed set of voice commands and skills, while Copilot is built around a generative AI model that can hold more open-ended, conversational interactions. As Microsoft phases Cortana out in favor of Copilot, this isn't a simple rename or an update to the same feature; it's a transition to a fundamentally different kind of assistant, which means habits and expectations built around Cortana don't transfer directly.

Because the two work so differently under the hood, things that used to work a certain, predictable way with Cortana may not have a direct equivalent in Copilot, and some things Copilot can do have no real precedent in what Cortana ever offered — which is why this transition trips people up more than a typical feature update would.

Signs this transition is affecting you

How serious is it?

Usually minor

This is an expected, intentional transition rather than something broken — Cortana being phased out is a deliberate change, not a malfunction.

Worth taking seriously

If you relied on Cortana for something specific and important to your routine, it's worth understanding what's genuinely different now rather than assuming a direct equivalent exists.

Why expecting a like-for-like swap leads to confusion

It's natural to expect that whatever Cortana used to do has a direct Copilot equivalent somewhere, just as an update — but because the two are built so differently, some things genuinely don't carry over the same way, and going in expecting a one-to-one swap sets you up to be confused by gaps that aren't actually gaps in your understanding, just genuine differences.

Helping you understand what's actually changed, what does and doesn't carry over, and how to get done what you used to rely on Cortana for is what WindowsHelper is being built to help you navigate.

What this helps with

What to expect: Easy difficulty • usually about 15-25 minutes.

Topics covered
aiassistantcompletecopilotcortanaguide

This is one of 33 AI Integration & Assistant Management fixes in the WindowsHelper library. The full step-by-step fix for this is in the WindowsHelper app.

Coming soon in the app

The full step-by-step fix for this is in the WindowsHelper phone app — coming soon, no price announced yet. The free PC Companion (available now) is the piece that connects your phone to your PC.

🔔 Get notified at launch
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Common questions

Is Copilot just a renamed Cortana?
No — they're built on genuinely different technology, so it's a real transition to a different kind of assistant, not a rename of the same one.
Will everything I used to do with Cortana still be possible?
Not necessarily in the same form — some things carry over conceptually, but the way you'd do them, or whether an equivalent exists at all, can genuinely differ.
Why did Cortana disappear from my PC?
That's an expected, deliberate part of Microsoft phasing it out in favor of Copilot, not a sign anything went wrong on your specific PC.
Is Copilot better than Cortana?
They're different in what they're built to do, so it depends on what you actually need — Copilot can do open-ended things Cortana never could, though it doesn't replicate every one of Cortana's specific commands.
Do I need to relearn how to use my PC's assistant from scratch?
Not entirely — but going in expecting some real differences, rather than an exact replacement, will save you some frustration during the transition.

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