How to manage your notifications in Windows 10

By Kim Komando

September 1, 2019

Are notifications from Windows starting to get on your nerves? No surprise there. As you may already know, the Action Center compiles all system and app notifications in one place. So, you’ll never miss or forget an important event again.

However, the more cool apps and helpful services that are connected to your device, the more annoying notifications you’ll receive. This can get pretty overwhelming after a while. Thankfully, Windows gives us the option to manage/customize if, when and how we would like these notifications to come through.

In what follows, we’ll show you how to manage and control your Windows notifications so that they don’t control you or continue to drive you nuts.

How to change Windows 10 notifications settings

As mentioned before, the Action Center on Windows 10 acts as the main control hub for your notifications, alerts and quick actions. Get fast access to settings, apps and everything else you’ll need to make your Windows system fit your daily routine and life.

You can change your action center settings whenever you want by following these simple steps:

• Click on the Start button to access the Settings menu.
• Proceed to the Systems tab and choose Notifications and actions.
• From here, you have the option to change or customize any of the following actions:
  • Pick and choose which actions you’ll see in the Action Center.
  • Choose whether you want notifications to appear on your lock screen.
  • Under show notifications and apps, you can manually turn on or off which apps show notifications.
  • Choose to see notifications on a duplicating screen.
  • Turn tips and tricks about Windows on or off.

How to change time notifications

If notifications are appearing longer than you would prefer, you can alter the duration of how long certain apps are displayed for.

• Start by tapping the Windows key keyboard shortcut to the settings app.
• Choose system.
• Click the ease of access tab.
• Go to other options.
• From there, you can go to the Visual options and select how long you would like notifications to be shown for. You can choose anywhere from 5 seconds (default) to 5 minutes.

How to mute Windows 10 notifications

Let’s say you don’t want to turn off a specific notification completely, but you just want to temporarily mute/hide them from view. There’s a way for you to do that as well. By using the Focus Assist tool.

1. Tap the Windows key + A to open the Action Center.
2. From there, select the moon icon to activate the Focus Assist option. This is where you have the option to turn the Focus Assist off, turn to priority, or only enable alerts to show up.

Tags: apps, Microsoft Windows 10, settings