Dropbox And Google Drive Will Be Searchable By Windows 10’s Cortana

Lenovo announced on Wednesday that your files on Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box can be searched by merely speaking a command to Windows 10’s virtual assistant Cortana. Cortana is a voice controlled assistant modeled after a character from the popular Xbox game, Halo. The virtual assistant will be available on Microsoft’s Windows 10 and is already on newer Windows Phones — however this search function will not extend to Windows Phone. Cortana’s new functionality is made possible by Lenovo’s ReachIt search software.

The Verge reports that the announcement was given by Lenovo’s CEO Yang Yuanging at the company’s Tech World conference. Tech World is the first tech conference to be organized by Chinese computer electronics manufacturer Lenovo.

“Lenovo and Microsoft have partnered exclusively to combine ReachIt and Cortana for Windows 10 to help Cortana understand what you’re looking for on a much deeper level,” stated Lenovo’s senior product manager, Grayson Davis, at the Tech World conference, according to Tech News Today.

But Cortana’s ability to search cloud storage will only be available to owners of Lenovo PCs running Windows 10 and ReachIt.

Lenovo’s ReachIt software has been installed on all Lenovo computers since the beginning of 2015. With ReachIt, you can search all your files across multiple cloud storage platforms: Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, and OneDrive. ReachIt is currently available on Windows and Android — and will be eventually coming to the iPhone and iPad.

Cortana’s cloud search gives the virtual assistant an edge over Apple’s Siri, which is rumored to be coming to the next version of OS X. Considering Windows 10 has a native virtual assistant, it certainly make sense for Apple to bring Siri to the Mac to remain competitive. But if Microsoft can bring the search feature to Cortana on Windows Phones, it could make Microsoft’s virtual assistant a more practical tool than Siri.

Windows 10’s release date still remains unconfirmed. But that isn’t stopping Microsoft from hyping up its eventual release with announcements about features like Cortana. All genuine Windows 7 operating systems, and above, will receive an invitation to upgrade for free to the new operating system. Demonstrating that Microsoft is eager to get as much conformity as possible for its latest and greatest operating system.

This comes to at no surprise, since Microsoft, unlike Apple, has difficulty getting its users to upgrade their computers. As of 2014, only 10 percent of PCs were running Windows 8, Microsoft’s latest operating system, Mashable reports.

Watch the Cortana ReachIt concept video below.

[Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]