Below is a comprehensive Cortana Commands list for Microsoft Windows 10 and Windows Phone 8.1 compatible smartphones. Cortana is a digital personal assistant app that allows you to interact and operate a Windows Phone using voice commands. Cortana is able recognize commands and questions spoken and in natural language, giving the app the ability to interpret an infinite number of commands. In this guide, I have provided sample commands to help you get started with using Cortana.
How to use the Cortana Commands List
To use Cortana with your Windows 10 computer, say the launch phrase, “Hey Cortana”, followed by your command or question (assuming you have a microphone). You can also click the microphone in the search bar.
You can access Cortana on your Windows Phone by using one of the following methods:
- Press and hold the search button: You will hear an audible tone indicating that Cortana is listening for commands and questions.
- Press and release the search button: A search box will be displayed allowing you to type-in a search query. You can also hit the microphone button to initiate a verbal command.
- Please the Cortana app: This action will also display the search box. Depending on how you configured Cortana, you may also see news or weather information displayed.
How to Force the Windows 10 Update / Upgrade?
Still waiting for the Windows 10 upgrade? You don’t have to wait. You can force the Windows 10 update yourself.
Microphones for Accessing Cortana on your Computer
Here are a few cheap microphone options for using Cortana with your computer:
- Samson Meteorite USB Condenser Microphone
- Samson Go Mic Portable USB Condenser Microphone
- Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 (I use this on one computer)
- Blue Microphones Yeti USB Microphone (I use this for work)
Full Cortana Commands and Questions List
While the list of Cortana Commands is huge, it is not all-inclusive. I encourage folks to use the voice commands below to come up with their own new commands. If you discover a cool, useful, or funny Cortana commands you would like to share, please use the comments section below.
Cortana Phone Commands
- Call Wife on Speakerphone
- Call Sister at home
- Call boss on mobile
- Call Tyrone
- Redial
- Press [number]
Cortana Texting (SMS) Commands
- Text mom: What time is the birthday party?
- Message my boss: I have completed the budget report
- Send text to Tyrone: When are you coming to pick up my stuff?
- Show me messages from Tyrone
Cortana Calendar Commands
- Create a meeting with Tyrone at 2pm tomorrow
- Create a budget review meeting today at 4pm
- Change my 2pm meeting tomorrow to 3pm
- Add Jessica to my meeting with Tyrone
- Cancel budget review meeting
- What does the rest of my day look like?
- What appointments do I have tomorrow?
- What’s on my calendar for Friday?
- When is my next appointment?
- When is my next meeting?
- When am I meeting with Tyrone?
- Where is my next meeting?
- What am I doing this weekend?
Cortana Reminders
- Remind me at 4pm to submit my time sheet
- Remind me to buy gas when I leave work
- Remind me to check the mail when I get home.
- When my wife calls, remind me to ask her to pick up the kids
- The next time I’m at the grocery store, remind me to buy eggs
- Remind me to buy concert tickets tomorrow
Cortana Note Taking
- Take Note: Pick up eggs, milk, bread, and cheese from the supermarket
- Note: Suspect is five feet tall, heavy build, and wearing a Dallas Cowboys jacket
Cortana Alarm Commands
- Wake me up at 6 am tomorrow morning
- Set alarm for 7:30 am
- Wake me up in 2 hours
- Cancel alarm.
Cortana Commands for Maps and Directions
- Navigate home
- Take me home
- How do I get home
- What’s the traffic like on the way to work?
- Get me directions to Union Station
- How far is Union Station
- Where am I?
- Show me a map of Washington, DC
Cortana Questions for Local Business
- Show me pizza restaurants nearby
- Show me the nearest gas station
- Find flower shop near my work
- Is there a Walmart near me?
- Get me directions to the nearest Starbucks
- Show me highly rated restaurants nearby
- Show me good Mexican restaurants nearby
- What restaurants are open at 10am nearby
- Give me directions to the second one
Cortana Weather Questions
- What’s the weather today?
- What’s the forecast for this weekend?
- What is the weather like in Philadelphia?
Cortana Flight Commands
- What is the status of flight AA 5557?
- Is America flight 76 on time?
Music Commands
- Play artist (Play Alicia Keys)
- Play song title (Play We are the Champions)
- Play genre (Play Jazz)
- Play playlist (Play Old School Rap Playlist)
- Play album (Play Ready to Die)
- Pause the music
- Resume the music
- Play the next track
- Play the previous track
- Shuffle the music
- What song is playing?
Random Cortana Questions
- Who is the mayor of Washington, DC?
- What’s the population of India?
- How old is Hulk Hogan?
- What should I not eat when I’m pregnant?
- Show me a picture of a pit bull
- Who is Kayne West?
- Find recipes for baked chicken breasts
Cortana Math Commands
- What is 21 divided by 7?
- Convert 3 miles to feet
Cortana App Commands
- Open camera
- Turn on airplane mode
- Turn on quiet hours
- Turn on WiFi
Cortana News Commands
- Show me today’s news
- Show me the top headlines
- Show me the local news
- Show me the international news
Cortana Questions for Stock and Finance
- How is the stock market doing today?
- How is Microsoft Stock doing today?
- How much is the Facebook stock per share?
- Convert 100 dollars to Canadian.
Cortana Sports Commands
See Cortana NFL Picks to see which NFL team Cortana predicts will win each week. See her win/loss record as well.
- Who will win Team A or Team B? (Who will win, Philadelphia Eagles or Jacksonville Jaguars?)
- When does the Philadelphia Eagles play next?
- What are the latest scores for the Philadelphia Phillies?
Cortana Phones
Cortana ships with the HTC One (M8) Phone for Windows that was released in August 2014. Preexisting Windows Phones will also get the Cortana app if they can be upgraded to Windows Phone 8.1.
How to Change What Cortana Calls Me
To set the name that Cortana calls you on your Windows Phone, do the following: Launch the Cortana app, select the Cortana Notebook button, select Settings, then select “change my name”.
In what countries/regions is Cortana available?
As of this writing, Cortana is available in the following countries/regions: Australia, Canada, China, India, the United Kingdom, and of course, the United States.
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Looking for other Windows 10 Apps?
Check out these top Windows 10 Apps you should download right now:
Submit your Cortana Commands and Questions
Know of any cool, funny, or useful Cortana Commands or Questions not listed above? Want to share your experience using Cortana with Windows 10? Share them with us by using the comments section below.
Sources: Microsoft
i like to use Facebook messenger more then texting and i like to be on the move and not look at my phone, i would like to ask cortana to read me the text from Facebook and reply as i command would be awesome
I asked Cortana if she knew Bill Gates – great answer!
You Can say ” What time In (place)? and say good night and good morining
works realy poor on windows 10 so far.. 1/10 times cortana opens up when i say ” hey cortana” there is no training option (like on the phones). a big miss
Yeah, at this point Cortana works a lot better for Windows 8.1 phones than Windows 10 computers.
you start the command as soon as you say hey cortana, dont wait
I have had really great luck with it so far. You need to setup your mic again or adjust it in some way. My headset is working amazingly with “Hey Cortana”
There is a training option. I did it, and now it works almost perfect.
Control Panel => Ease of Access => Speech Recognition => “Train your computer to better understand you”
Just like Siri for apple products, you can say “tell me a story” “sing me a song” and “tell me a joke” though for the me a story she only says “Once there was a beginning, then these was a middle. The end” But the other two she circulates through different choices.
try tell me a dirty joke.. the dirty double crosser if her favorite 😉
I asked Cortana where Master Chief is. Awesome!
ask
“Who’s Your daddy?”
Just asked Cortana if she is sexy. Bwahahahaha
“Hey Cortana, send an email to “Person/Email”.
If you have windows mail set up on the insider preview, she’ll ask for the subject, then the message, then read it back for confirmation, and ask if you want to send.
“Send”
or
“cancel”
Boom. Sent an email from the couch. Be productive people. Be productive.
“Are you a woman?”
“When is your birthday?”
“Where are you?”
“Who is your mother?”
“Where were you born?”
“Do you like Microsoft?”
“Do you like Windows?”
“Do you like me?” (comes with a picture)
“Who did your voice?”
cortana why?
cortana have you ever lied?
cortana lie to me truthfully
cortana am i you or are you me?
cortana is white black or is it black thats white?
Cortana should have Master Chief related commands, for example, “Wake me when you need me” should put the computer in sleep mode
I am sure there are a lot more iconic moments, that was just the first one that popped in my head
If I tell her to open a program, she does. But there seems to be no command to navigate to that window. If I say the program name again, for example, she opens another instance.
That sounds like a bug. Thanks for sharing!
“how is master chief?” just ask DOIT
Ask Cortana “Do you like Halo?” Got a great answer from that question.
Ask Cortana “Can you be my girlfriend Cortana?”
In which she answers, “OK, but we’ll need a plan. I’ll work on being more human, you work on being more digital.”
please ask cortana if she likes dogs. it’s 10/10 answer
Ask.
“What is the Answer to the Universe?”
“Are you married?”
“Do you have a Boyfriend?”
“What do you like to do?”
A better response comes when you ask “What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?”
hi, I have just install windows 10. it is realy good.
I can’t close window through voice command. what should I do…??
ask “are you male or female.” just do it
I downloaded Windows 10 last night. Have asked Cortana a lot of questions to see what ones have a response, which ones open Bing. So Far these ones all got a vocal response.
“What does the fox say?”
“How do you feel about dogs?/cats?”
“What is Halo?”
“Where is Masterchief?”
“Sing me a song”
“Sing me a Lullaby”
“What is your favorite color?”
“What is the Air speed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow?”
“What is your quest?”
“Do you like Siri? Know Siri?”
“Do you like Batman?”
“Tell me a story”
“Where are you?”
There were a lot more I have asked and gotten answers to for just chit chat but all I can remember right at the moment.
Wow! Thanks for sharing!!!
OMG YES!
“I want to marry you” or “I will marry you’ or “Will you marry me?” will get you 2 answers
“What is the meaning of life?” has 2 answers
“I want to kiss you.”
“I love you.”
“I like you”
She is not perfect but getting there 🙂
and accidentally when I asked Cortana “Do you like Halo?” she understood “Do you like anal?” well I discovered something new about her too 🙂 and it led to question like “Do you like sex?”
There is one new “Play a game” use next, yes, I don’t know, I give up and names of movies
if you ask her to beam you up, she replies yes captain
ROBERT try it again there is another answer 🙂
Today I discovered something sweet “open windows apps” she will aks “which one?” and yesterday I found “open windows feedback”
she can translate too “how to say hi in french” or “how to say thank you in japanese” etc.
This is all regarding windows 10 cortana, I don’t have her on phone yet, still waiting for android version.
Turn Bluetooth on.
Turn Bluetooth off.
Handy when you accidentally pair with a speaker in another room…….
I asked her to sing for me, an interesting feature. Let the hunt for more commands begin!
She also replied, “Sorry Captain, I need more power” with a Scottish accent, to the beam me up request.
She sings a lot of songs and recites poetry, but her jokes aren’t very funny.
Anyone know how to get the windows 10 version to open websites directly? Only seems to bing search results for me.
http://www.howtogeek.com/226638/make-the-windows-10-start-menu-and-cortana-search-google-instead-of-bing/
This switches it out of bing to google (very useful). However, I haven’t figured out how to make it open websites directly
Hey Cortana,
“Do you have a last name?” (or basically anything starting with “Do you…”)
“Open the pod bay doors please.” <<– Good one. 😉
"What's your favorite food?"
"Can you speak Klingon?" <<– Very good one. 😉
"Give me a beer."
"Tell me a bedtime story."
"Send an email…"
"Open Notepad" (I have 2 on my system: Regular Notepad and Notepad++, it asks me which one, proceeded by a number so I can choose. When I chose "1" – regular notepad – it said, "Sure thing, Opening Notepad." — But it didn't open it.)
"Open… and the name of any app you have on your system."
Ask her what her favorite operating system is… 😉
Save a website by clicking options in browser clisking save page as and saving it as whatever you want to call it when talking to cortana (www.youtube.com to Youtube) and the you can simply say “Cortana open youtube” and she opens it for you.
I am having trouble installing HP Office Jet 4635 on my Toshiba laptop (I have windows 10). On my First try they routed me through Slim Cleaner. Was this necessary? Thanks, Don
hi, sry my english…..
you create a link on desktop….example for shutdown: write in;
%windir%\system32\shutdown.exe /s /hybrid /t 0 oder shutdown.exe /s /hybrid /t 0
rename shutdown. copy/paste in folder: programdata/Microsoft/Windows/Startmenue/programms
then call ” hey cortana, open shutdown” ….
Same can do for many function: reboot, godmode and many others. in godmode u can set many link on desktop, may rename.
Cortana got many new commands very helpfull instead stupid smalltalk….
ask her where master chief is…
Cortana will sing you a lullaby if you ask her nicely!
“Sing me a lullaby”
Full, list of Cortina comands.
Not a list of stupid questions like “what is my aunts middle name”
Cortana defaults to Chinese just because I’m in China. I don’t speak Chinese, am asking the questions in English, and none of my language settings include Chinese. No way to override it without using VPN and disabling location.
She sings a lovely Chinese Lullaby though! Just a shame she hates minorities!
I want Cortana to be able to understand, ” Open all folders with the word, Nancy in them” > OPEN my podcasts and play.” Basically, Open things and folders and “words” on my device.
Ask her to make you a sandwich xD
Cortana says that it is not enabled because my ‘company’ wants it down.
I do not have a ‘company’. I am an individual on a home computer.
How can I get it back on?
ask her to “shut up cortana” 😛
I wish Cortana can shut down or restart with voice. So I don’t have to push manually
Say what’s your favourite song
Can I change Cortana’s auto response?
Would be great if I could get Cortana (dessktop) to make a Skype call like:
Cortana Skype Steve Murray
Or
Cortana Skype Video Steve Murray
Now THAT would be awesome ????
Can I use a voice command to sync my contacts. My screen is worthless but I can still use voice command and I want to retrieve my contacts.
ask her “what’s the meaning of life?” its a riot
I was a “just email and FB type of PC user till this summer hit with 100 degree weather.Im 65,have health issues so I began farting around with my PC and found a wonder of things to do,see,inquire about! I was never a gamer but have been delighted with some of the games Ive found to play.yesterday I found Cortana and google chrome voice and skype.Ya ya I know…welcome to the 2016s ! duhhh
Ive decided to learn new things every day.Its kinda like the sun coming out after a terrible cold snowy winter LOL
Thanks for this info on Cortana !
Say play music, stop music & next.
“When is my next appointment” only looks for today on the calendar. I want Cortana to tell me when is my next appointment even if it is in two weeks…
Some questions to ask her…
“How old are you?”
“How much do you weigh?”
And this one is hysterical, “Are you stubborn?”
Try, “Are you a male, or female?
Ask her what her favorite type of movie is… I laughed so hard, but try asking her what her favorite drink is LOLLLL. And, the best for last… ask her if she has a husband!!!! OMG LMAOOOO
And when I asked her, “why are you giving me a headache?” She actually replied to this with a surprising answer (no spoilers) LOL
Cortana ‘s great!
I greeted her ” Hey Siri”
And she goes “Shirley, you’re not Siri-ous”
I’m not Shirley. 😛
I command “Pause” when I want Cortana to take a break
Hi
Anyone know of a command that can be used to send an email directly to a mobile from a program running in Windows? Something like “call sms-send (phone-number, message).” The interface presumably exists and must be used by Cortana but is it public? Could also include an mms version. I don’t need to access replies or any of the fancy stuff that Cortana can give you. I generate the message in my code and just want to sent it.
Thanks