How to Use Windows 10 Action Center?

One of the unique and useful additions to Windows 10 is the Action Center. This is the central display for all system notifications which also provides quick access to settings and various actions. The feature comes in form of a slide-out-pane that displays quick actions and notifications upon a click of an icon.

In addition to being easy to use, you can customize it to suit your unique needs and preferences. This article explores the various ways you can tailor the Action Center to enjoy a more personalized experience, when using your Windows PC.

How to Access Action Center?

The Windows Action Center icon is located on the taskbar, at the bottom-right corner of your PC screen. Click on it to open Action Center.

How to Use Windows 10 Action Center?

1. Viewing notifications
2. Modify notification settings
3. Personalize App Notifications
4. Customize Quick Actions

1. View Notifications in Windows 10 Action Center

• When there are no new notifications, the icon will be black inside. If you have a fresh notification(s), the inside of the action center icon will be white in color with an integer below it. This indicates the number of notifications you have.

• To view the notifications, click on the icon (at the right-most edge of the taskbar). This will side up the action center panel on the right side of your screen, displaying most recent notifications for different apps on the upper section of the panel.

• Clicking on the notification will open the app in question for your actions.
• You may also clear a particular notification by clicking the “X” at the upper corner of the notification. Or click the “Clear all notifications” to remove notifications from all apps.

2. Modify Notifications Settings

• Press “Win +I” keys on the keyboard or click the Windows startup button, then select “Settings” (the gear icon) to open the settings app. Select “System” from the options.

• From the system setting menu list on the left panel, select “Notifications & actions”.
• Scroll down to the “Notifications” section. You have the following settings which you can alter by turning on/off the switch below the various options.
  • Show notification on the lock screen.
  • Show reminders and incoming VoIP calls on the lock screen.
  • Enable suggested and welcome screen after Windows update.
  • Disable getting tips and tricks when using Windows.
  • Turning off the “Get notifications from apps and other senders” option will disable all notifications.

3. Customize App Notifications

• In order to enable or disable notification from various apps, scroll down to the “Get notifications from these senders” section.
• Click on the switch to enable/disable notification for a particular app.

• You can also personalize notifications for a given app, by clicking the app under “Get notifications from these senders”. This will open the app’s settings page, from this window you can specify:
  • Whether to show notifications on action center.
  • Play a sound alert.
  • Maximum number of notifications to show in action center from the app.
  • Priority of the notification in the action center list.

4. Personalize Quick Actions

To increase your speed and productivity, Quick Actions provides hassle-free access to your most used settings ranging from “Network” to “Screen Brightness” settings.

• To view Quick Actions, click the “Action Center” icon on the lower-right edge of your display.
• The actions are displayed on the lower panel of the action center. While in “Collapsed” mode, only four quick actions will show.

• To modify Quick Actions on the Action Center;
• Go to the Windows start menu, click and select gear-shaped settings icon to open the settings app. Or use the shortcut keys “Win + I” to launch the Windows 10 settings app.
• Click on “System” and then select the “Notifications & actions” from the options on the left pane.
• Under the “Quick actions” heading, you will find boxes with icons for the different actions. Click, hold a drag a particular icon to rearrange according to your liking.

• Note that icons on the first 4 boxes will display on when you collapse Quick actions view on the Action Center.
• You can also add or remove a quick actions from the action center by clicking the “Add or remove quick actions” link.
• This will open a list of all quick actions with the toggle switch on their right. Click the switch to add/ remove. The blue switch shows the added actions, while the gray switch shows the removed actions.

Conclusion

You can control which notification or quick actions to display in Windows 10 action center by making the above modifications from the system settings. This will further customize your experience with Windows, as well as enhance your performance.