Implementing Cortana throughout Windows 10

Here’s how Cortana can become a better assistant if integrated to the whole operating system

3 min readSep 16, 2020

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In the last few days, I was wondering how can Cortana do even more? What if it gets implemented in the whole operating system. So I’ve created some concept shots to show just that. So let’s begin.

Cortana Suggestions in Context Menus

Cortana will learn what is the most frequent task(s) user does with a certain file type. So in this example, the user opens images in Lightroom most of the time and puts those files in a folder after they finish working with the images.

So Cortana sees that and puts “Open in Adobe Lightroom” and “Create folder from selection” options at the top of the context menu. The other options in the context menu are still presented under the “Cortana Suggestions” area.

Cortana suggesting users the most frequent things they do with that kind of files

System-Wide “Ask Cortana” Context Menu Entry

One of the features I really liked in Microsoft Edge (Legacy) was “Ask Cortana”. Just select some text, right click on it and select “Ask Cortana”. Cortana will search online for it and will provide info about the thing user requested. I think it would be amazing if it gets implemented system-wide.

So If you select any bit of text anywhere, Cortana will tell you information about it. Like telling a meaning of a word or information about a tourist destination etc.

Cortana showing more info about the text selected.

Cortana In Existing System Pop-ups/Notifications

Last but not least, here’s Cortana in existing system popups (like in the popup which appears during a file transfer when a folder has two files with the same name or the battery low notification etc). I think just adding a Cortana-ish “vibe” to them would make the OS feel more alive. Here are some shots of how it would work:

Battery low notification with a little sense of humor *sigh*

Conclusion

This was a short blog post I did because Twitter won’t let me post a tweet with more than 280 characters 😠 . But anyways, these were some ideas I thought about how Cortana can be implemented throughout Windows 10. Please let me know what you think of this, here or on Twitter (really appreciate a follow). Thanks for reading!