Windows 10 Tip: Train Cortana to Know Your Voice

Windows 10 Tip: Train Cortana to Know Your Voice

The Cortana personal digital assistant in Windows 10 works pretty well without any training. But if you take a few minutes to train Cortana to recognize your voice, you will get much better results.

In a previous tip, I explained how you can get started with Cortana by enabling and configuring this unique digital personal assistant. Among Cortana’s capabilities is voice control, which you must enable explicitly. When you do so, Cortana will respond to your voice when you say, “Hey, Cortana.”

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“Hey, Cortana” works great for the most part. But it’s worth stepping through a short wizard that will help you train Cortana to respond only to your voice and to better understand what it is you’re saying.

Here’s how you do so.

First, open Cortana. You can do this by selecting the Cortana search box or icon in the taskbar, or through Cortana’s Start menu tile or All Apps entry. When the Cortana window slides open, select the Notebook icon on the left: it’s the third one down, below menu (hamburger) and Home.

cortana-main

When you do so, the Notebook view appears.

notebook

Here, select Settings. Make sure that “Hey, Cortana” is enabled and that “Respond to” is set to “To me.” (You will need to scroll down a bit.)

settings

Now, click the Learn My Voice button.

wiz1

As prompted, step through the wizard and repeat the test phrases back as prompted.

When you’re done, Cortana will understand you better and will respond more quickly and accurately to your voice.

wiz3

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  • Sonorazona

    13 May, 2018 - 7:10 pm

    <p>So, is it possible to teach Cortana to respond to a dog bark? Why you ask? I'm trying to teach a dog not to bark. If I could teach Cortana to respond to barking then I could use the computer to emit sounds that would stop the barking, sort of like a sonic bark box app.</p>

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