One of the greatest new features brought by Windows 10 is Cortana, your personal virtual assistant. We've talked about her for quite a while now and we've seen some of the great things she can do. But, unfortunately, she is not available to everyone in the world, because Microsoft has released Cortana only for a few select countries. However, even if you don't live in a country that's supported by Cortana, you can still have her on your Windows 10 computer or device, by changing only a few settings. Let's see how to get Cortana turned on, no matter where you live:
What Countries Are Supported By Cortana?
While Microsoft promised to make Cortana available for more countries over time, for now she is only available in seven select countries and languages. These are:
- United States Of America (US English)
- United Kingdom (British English)
- Germany (German)
- France (French)
- Spain (Spanish)
- Italy (Italian)
- China (Mandarin Chinese)
In the near future, Microsoft also announced that they will make Cortana available for another six countries:
- Japan
- Australia
- Canada
- India
- Brazil
- Mexico
If you want to, you can check the official announcement from Microsoft, here: Cortana brings Cultural Savviness to New Markets.
If you live in one of the supported countries, count yourself lucky. If not, head on to the next section of this tutorial to find out how you can still get Cortana, even if you don't live in one of these countries.
How To Enable Cortana In A Non-Supported Country
If you live in country that's not yet supported by Cortana, all you'll get when trying to access her is a message that says: "I'm afraid I'm not available to help in your region".
If you want to enable and use Cortana regardless of the country you live in, you will have set your Windows 10 computer or device to use all the following language settings simultaneously:
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You must set your Windows display language to be one of the Cortana supported languages.
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You must download and install the Speech language pack for the language you selected previously.
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You must set your country to the home country of the language you set during the previous steps.
Cortana, Windows 10, get, work, enable, activate, any, country, region, world, language
If you don't know how to change all these settings, read this tutorial: How To Change Cortana's Language On A Windows 10 PC, Notebook Or Tablet. You'll find all the steps you need to take in the second section, the one called "How To Change Cortana's Language".
After you've set your Windows 10 computer or device to use the same Cortana supported language settings everywhere, you can start enjoying her right away. There's no need for restart or any other setting.
If this is the first time you see Cortana on your Windows 10 computer or device, you should know that there are a few initial steps you must take in order to set her up. If you'd like some further information about her, we recommend that you also check on these Cortana related articles and guides that we've previously published:
Conclusion
As you can see, even if you live in a non-supported country, you can still enable Cortana on your Windows 10 computers or devices. It's not the fastest, nor the easiest process, but it's doable and anyone can get Cortana with a bit of patience. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't offer any international version of Cortana that could be used by anyone in the world, regardless of the country you live in. What do you think? Wouldn't you've preferred to have an international version available?
