Opening programs with your voice couldn’t be easier. Especially if you have “Hey Cortana” enabled. (Click here to learn how to do that.) Just say “Hey Cortana.” Wait for half a second to hear the response chime and continue with “Open Google Chrome.” (or the name of any other program.) If you don’t have “Hey Cortana” enabled, click on the round Cortana icon next to the Search Box.
Cortana will respond with “All right, opening Google Chrome” (or the name of whatever program you want to open.) The program will open right up.
If Cortana isn’t sure what exactly to open, she’ll ask for clarification. I asked her to open photos and she wasn’t sure which app fits the bill. All I need to do is say which program I want to open.
I can also tell Cortana to open Settings or specific settings like Advanced System Settings.
You can get specific about what you want to change with Cortana. For example, I asked Cortana to change my default web browser.
And Settings will open up to where I need to be to make the change. Pretty simple, huh?
Cortana can also open websites for you. When I ask her to open CNN.com, it opens right up.
But it doesn’t always open every site. When I try to bring up my website at cynmackley.com, it gives me Bing search results. When using Cortana, you’ll have to use the Edge browser and Bing search.