Windows 10: Fun With Cortana

Cortana is like liver sausage – you either love it or hate it.

At first we were not very enamored with Cortana, but lately we both have been enjoying “her”. (If you don’t want her to be a her, it’s the 21st century! You can make her a him… see this page.)

If you’ve set up Cortana, you can ask “her” anything and usually get an answer. Just start your question with “Hey Cortana”. For instance… “Hey Cortana. What’s the weather forecast today?” And you’ll get today’s weather. You can ask… “Hey Cortana. What is the weather going to be like on Tuesday?” And “she’ll” tell you.

What if  you had to work with EB like I do and were depressed and forlorn? Well you can ask  Cortana to tell you a joke, which I just did:

“Hey Cortana. Tell me a joke.” And “she” told me this joke:

“What did the fisherman say to the magician? Pick a cod.. any cod!”

Ha ha.

“Hey Cortana. Tell me another joke”

“OK. Time flies like the wind, but fruit flies like a banana”

Or, if your pathetically bored, like EB is, you can ask Cortana to sing you a song!

“Hey Cortana. Sing a song!”

“She” sings:

“Oh Susannah, don’t you cry for me,
Cuz I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee…”

And she really sings well – at least she hit all the notes. Not sure how well the male voices would do though – if you want to try out Mark or David, it’s on you.

Oh get some trivia from her:

“Hey Cortana… give me some Beatles trivia.”

And she told me: “All four members of the Beatles have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; once as members of the Beatles and once as individual artists.”

“Hey Cortana. What was the largest selling single recording ever?”

And she told me. ” ‘White Christmas’ by Bing Crosby in 1942 was the biggest selling single record in history with sales over 50 million.”

Hey Cortana. How tall is Mount McKinley.”

And she replied.  “The elevation of Denali is 20,322 feet.”

Notice she corrected me… Mount McKinley is now known as Denali because that’s what its name really is. However, here in the USA we like to name things for presidents. I’m glad we changed it back to Denali our of respect for the native folks of Alaska.

You can ask her to define a word, play trivia with you, tell you a joke, sing a song, play a music video, or play a game (really – just say “Hey Cortana. Let’s play a game.”)

“Hey Cortana. Tell me another joke.”

“A grasshopper walks into a bar. The bartender says, ‘Hi! We have a drink named after you!’ The grasshopper says… ‘You have a drink named Steve?’ “

Now,  go have some fun with Cortana.