4 ms·

1) I always recommend to my friends to give Cortana more than a 5 second consideration - especially if they're Windows users. Since Cortana primarily uses Bing,

1) I always recommend to my friends to give Cortana more than a 5 second consideration - especially if they're Windows users. Since Cortana primarily uses Bing, there's always a hesitation - but it's surprisingly fun and an effective AI "assistant." I'm still working on understanding the Office 365 capabilities, as I discover some cool ones here and there Example that blew away a colleague at work using a Surface Pro: "Cortana - I'm trying to find an Excel function to do X & Y. What should I use?" Not only did Bing find a serviceable answer, but because we made the search while Excel was opened, the function was auto-populated in the highlighted cell. 2) Some of the Bing/Cortana cognitive intelligence APIs are pretty cool and pretty available to anyone. As an example, I was hacking at a chat bot for Skype + Slack for fun one weekend, and I noticed that there was a tool that could take an image, and provide a description of what was in the image. If it was of a baseball player, the level of detail would be down to the color of her/his shirt.

nol13 10y ago
I've really wanted to try Cortana since getting a Windows 10 laptop, but it won't let me turn it on without giving full access to search, email, credit card no, SSN, calendar, etc. Oh well. Why do I need to give it access to my search history and email to be able to find excel functions for me?
- onion2k 10y ago
  Why do I need to give it access to my search history and email to be able to find excel functions for me? You should think of your personal data as a valuable asset that you can use to pay for things. Now you know why you need to give Cortana access to them.
  - sz4kerto 10y ago
    > Now you know why you need to give Cortana access to them. Do you think this is the sole reason behind that?
    - onion2k 10y ago
      In the specific case that nol13 was talking about (using Bing to search for an Excel function), yes.
      - zamalek 10y ago
        But not for scenarios like "what meetings do I have today?"
        onion2k 10y ago
        In the situation where you're using Cortana to search your meetings you have to give it permission to access your data for two reasons - to tell it that you agree to allow it to access the information and to pay the price of using the service by giving it access to your data. The 'payment' issue is still there.
        zamalek 10y ago
        Agreed. I was merely pointing out that granting access to your personal life isn't functionally pointless.
- lloeki 10y ago
  > it won't let me turn it on without giving full access to... Well it won't allow me to turn it on because I live in France and thus have a "french" MS/Live account but set my system language to English. Go figure†. † I can very well make up a zillion obscure and convoluted technical and/or legal reasons, but none make any sense from a end-user point of view, which is, in the end, what matters.
  - ci5er 10y ago
    > which is, in the end, what matters Not to the courts.
DaiPlusPlus 10y ago
"but because we made the search while Excel was opened, the function was auto-populated in the highlighted cell." - which version of Excel was this? The desktop version (2010, 2013, 2016?) or the XAML version? I'd be surprised if Cortana integrated with the desktop version, considering Office doesn't run in Windows 10's sandbox model, and Microsoft is only allowing sandboxed apps access to the cooler features of Win10.
- danbolt 10y ago
  I'd imagine the non-XAML version has a lot longer of a feature list, but would you be familiar between the differences between the two? I'd be curious to see XAML adoption with respect to usage.
- yrro 10y ago
  This certainly would not be the first time that Office is allowed to use secret APIs to put the competition at a disadvantage.
- WorldMaker 10y ago
  First, classic Win32 apps ("desktop versions") have had access to a subset of useful WinRT components (WinRT the COM replacement, not WinRT the OS SKU) since early in Windows 8's history. (8.1 and 10 both opened up further the WinRT APIs that Win32 apps can consume.) A lot of the APIs only make sense inside the "sandbox" as you refer to it, but it's not locked down quite as much as you think it is. [Then there's the recently built Project Centennial bridge to give Win32 apps even greater access to WinRT APIs and the ability to spin up modern user interfaces in a mixed-interop model and ease transitions between the two types of apps.] Second, that doesn't actually matter in this case anyway (and is a red herring) because it is Cortana automating Office and not the other way around. Win32 automation is relatively straight forward, including the most basic automation of them all: cut, copy, and paste. It could be Cortana is calling into COM components in Office or even older, more generic Windows Automation COM components. (Which can still be done, with permissions, from "inside the sandbox". Again the "sandbox" is not as locked down as a lot of people seem to think it is, especially in Windows 10.)

nol13 10y ago

I've really wanted to try Cortana since getting a Windows 10 laptop, but it won't let me turn it on without giving full access to search, email, credit card no, SSN, calendar, etc. Oh well. Why do I need to give it access to my search history and email to be able to find excel functions for me?

onion2k 10y ago
Why do I need to give it access to my search history and email to be able to find excel functions for me? You should think of your personal data as a valuable asset that you can use to pay for things. Now you know why you need to give Cortana access to them.
- sz4kerto 10y ago
  > Now you know why you need to give Cortana access to them. Do you think this is the sole reason behind that?
  - onion2k 10y ago
    In the specific case that nol13 was talking about (using Bing to search for an Excel function), yes.
    - zamalek 10y ago
      But not for scenarios like "what meetings do I have today?"
      - onion2k 10y ago
        In the situation where you're using Cortana to search your meetings you have to give it permission to access your data for two reasons - to tell it that you agree to allow it to access the information and to pay the price of using the service by giving it access to your data. The 'payment' issue is still there.
        zamalek 10y ago
        Agreed. I was merely pointing out that granting access to your personal life isn't functionally pointless.
lloeki 10y ago
> it won't let me turn it on without giving full access to... Well it won't allow me to turn it on because I live in France and thus have a "french" MS/Live account but set my system language to English. Go figure†. † I can very well make up a zillion obscure and convoluted technical and/or legal reasons, but none make any sense from a end-user point of view, which is, in the end, what matters.
- ci5er 10y ago
  > which is, in the end, what matters Not to the courts.

DaiPlusPlus 10y ago

"but because we made the search while Excel was opened, the function was auto-populated in the highlighted cell." - which version of Excel was this? The desktop version (2010, 2013, 2016?) or the XAML version? I'd be surprised if Cortana integrated with the desktop version, considering Office doesn't run in Windows 10's sandbox model, and Microsoft is only allowing sandboxed apps access to the cooler features of Win10.

danbolt 10y ago
I'd imagine the non-XAML version has a lot longer of a feature list, but would you be familiar between the differences between the two? I'd be curious to see XAML adoption with respect to usage.
yrro 10y ago
This certainly would not be the first time that Office is allowed to use secret APIs to put the competition at a disadvantage.
WorldMaker 10y ago
First, classic Win32 apps ("desktop versions") have had access to a subset of useful WinRT components (WinRT the COM replacement, not WinRT the OS SKU) since early in Windows 8's history. (8.1 and 10 both opened up further the WinRT APIs that Win32 apps can consume.) A lot of the APIs only make sense inside the "sandbox" as you refer to it, but it's not locked down quite as much as you think it is. [Then there's the recently built Project Centennial bridge to give Win32 apps even greater access to WinRT APIs and the ability to spin up modern user interfaces in a mixed-interop model and ease transitions between the two types of apps.] Second, that doesn't actually matter in this case anyway (and is a red herring) because it is Cortana automating Office and not the other way around. Win32 automation is relatively straight forward, including the most basic automation of them all: cut, copy, and paste. It could be Cortana is calling into COM components in Office or even older, more generic Windows Automation COM components. (Which can still be done, with permissions, from "inside the sandbox". Again the "sandbox" is not as locked down as a lot of people seem to think it is, especially in Windows 10.)