Watch in bemusement as dozens of instances of Cortana annoy an IT department

By Jez Corden
published

In the first Creators Update, Microsoft bundled Cortana as a narrator for the Windows 10 out-of-box-experience (OOBE). While potentially mildly annoying for a single user, this video details how silly it can get for IT departments deploying multiple PCs at once.

When unboxing or installing a Windows 10 PC with the latest updates for the first time, the set-up wizard now comes with some sluggish narration from Cortana, Microsoft's digital assistant. It's great for those with certain disabilities, and it also promotes Cortana to Windows users who might be unfamiliar with her, but on the other hand, it's a little annoying for those who don't want, or need, her help during set-up. Particularly so if you're working at an IT department.

This video from gamerqq shows what it's like setting up 40+ Windows PCs for an IT department, with a cacophonic Cortana choir in chorus.

IT departments can clone a Windows installation to avoid this, and you can mute Cortana during the OOBE set-up phase, of course, but she is loud and proud by default. While more funny than annoying, it goes to show how dumb "smart" assistants can still be. It reminisces of scenarios that might be familiar to Windows Central readers, like saying "Hey, Cortana," and getting simultaneous responses from your Xbox, PC, phone, and any other Windows-based devices you might have hooked up in the same room.

Either way, the video makes for fun weekend sharing. Have a good one people!

Jez Corden
Jez Corden
Co-Managing Editor

Jez Corden a Managing Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by caffeine. Follow on Twitter @JezCorden and listen to his Xbox Two podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!

27 Comments
  • Why are they setting them up manually? Using WDS, which is free, you  can manually set up one device, clone it, and then deploy the image to the other devices. On top of that you can disable the OOBE, so no annoying Cortana.
  • Says in the comments they were gonna be reimaged, he probably did it for the lulz
  • Well that video is funny but cortana has real problems. Google Assistant and Alexa have ways to tell devices apart but Microsoft hasn't even attempted to address it, which is amazing because Cortana is on more types of devices - Xbox, PC, phones* and home speakers.
  • Ah OK, I didn't check the YouTube comments. Cortana scared the crap out of my the first time it did this. I had a laptop sitting behind me while it's image was deploying, then all of a sudden "Hi there..."
  • LOL!
  • Please make it stop!!!! Hehe
  • 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
  • Lmao Cortana is going rampant!! I was having a similar experience in my department but on a smaller scale when we were working on building our 1709 image.
  • LOL!!!
  • The title of the article is such click bait. This IT guy was not annoyed in the slightest he did this on purpose to make a video. All those laptops had a mute button even if you didn't tell Cortana to mute immediately.
  • Is your life so devoid of joy?
  • Lmao first Daniel now Jez WC is on troll slaying duty this week.
  • I got troll slaying training ;)
  • Headers for articles are supposed to have an element to draw a curious reader to the article. Compared to other sites and other 'writers' (using that term loosely with some of those), I wouldn't call that clickbait at all.
  • I agree, people don't seem to know what clickbait is anymore
  • 🤣😂🤣😂🤣 That's awesome!!! I'd love to do that in our IT department because we are next to the commons area/cafeteria....I'd wait until lunch time and unleash the Cortana invasion and have our team run out like we are being overrun by Skynet!!!! We'd probably put 100s of Cortana' over loudspeaker.  Hmmmm...it's now December.....that gives me time to pitch this idea before April....
  • 🤣🤣🤣. That will be pretty hilarious
  • Remind me of Gremlins.
  • and you can mute Cortana during the OOBE set-up phase, unless you want to make a video.
  • haha wondering how many try's did to take to create this epicness.
  • I just mute that part.
  • Multi-Cortana
  • Gary?
  • What would really have been impressive would be if he had them all within voice range, and had completed the first few steps of setup via voice -- which he could have.
  • LoL.  That happend to me before but I only had 6 going at once.  After that I timed the installs just far enough apart where I could be installing apps on one while the other was doing the OOBE, and I could talk to Cortana to complete the OOBE setup while installing apps on the previous PC.  :-)
  • Might be strande, but the only thing that popped into my head was: What was the person thinking plugging that many computers into 1 outlet in the hallway, that is just asking for problems from overloading a circut.
  • Yeesh, I just started up a new Surface Pro for work, not knowing they started this nonsense. It immediately made me scramble to mute the PC because it's an insufferable annoyance when you have no warning it's going and you are in a work environment where no one really wants to hear your computer start hollering for no reason.