Cortana and Search, the most infamous couple in Windows 10, are breaking up. In Windows 10 Insider Build 18317, Microsoft is "decoupling" search and Cortana.
"This will enable each experience to innovate independently to best serve their target audiences and use cases," wrote Windows Insider boss Dona Sarkar.
Cortana will get its own spot on the Taskbar, in between Task View and the search box (where it once lived). In other releases, Microsfot To-Do was worked into Cortana, and the search landing page changed in design.
In theory, moving Cortana away from search allows for far more innovation in the search box. A more powerful, clean search experience has long been a request from Windows 10's heaviest users. It's why some software, like Wox, is popular, as it digs its hooks deep into the file system and allows for specialized search queries.
Microsoft has been playing with more advanced search on Office.com, Bing and Sharepoint mobile (opens in new tab), so it seems that a deeper search experience for Windows 10 may be just a few releases away.
Build 18317 also simplifies the Windows Insider Program settings.
