Microsoft has revealed it will be splitting Cortana and search in the latest build of Windows 10, so voice searches are handled separately from text-based searches in the Windows taskbar.
The change is likely to appear in the April Windows 40 update, the next scheduled major release.
From that update, anyone wanting to search their computer for a file or folder will be directed to the text-based search tool, while those wanting to use voice-based searches will use a new Cortana voice UI instead.
"This change is one of several we've made throughout this release to improve your experience in this space, including updating the search landing page design, enhancing your search results, and integrating Microsoft To-Do with Cortana," said Microsoft.
Presumably, these changes have been made following extensive research into how people use Cortana and text-based searches differently. It will allow Microsoft to focus on improving the accuracy of text-based searches without getting caught up in voice recognition too.
"... decoupling Search and Cortana in the taskbar [will] enable each experience to innovate independently to best serve their target audiences and use cases," said Microsoft.
Microsoft testers enrolled in the company's Windows Insider scheme have already been playing around with the update in their preview build for the last few weeks and apparently the tech giant has had some encouraging feedback on the decision.
"For those new to this update, when it rolls out to you, you'll find clicking the search box in the taskbar now launches our experience focused on giving you the best in house search experience and clicking the Cortana icon will launch you straight into our voice-first digital assistant experience," Microsoft said.
