How to Enable or Disable the Action Center in Windows 10
The Action Center in Windows 10 collects and shows toast notifications and alerts from traditional Windows applications and system notifications, alongside those generated from modern apps. Toast and notifications are then grouped in the Action Center by app and time.
The Action Center will show you all of your past notifications until you clear them. This can be useful if you had a notification pop-up, and you missed what it said.
The Action Center also has personalized quick actions at the bottom to be able to easily toggle on/off or open items such as Airplane mode, All settings, Connect, Display, Location, Tablet Mode, VPN, and Wifi.
If the Action Center is disabled, it will no longer display in the taskbar notification area, and can no longer be opened. The user will still get notifications above the taskbar notification area as usual, but they will no longer be able to review them in the Action Center.
On a touchscreen, users will still be able to open the Action Center by swiping inwards from the right screen border.
This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the Action Center for all or specific users in Windows 10.
You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable the Action Center.
Contents
- Option One: To Enable or Disable Action Center in Group Policy
- Option Two: To Enable or Disable Action Center using a REG file
EXAMPLE: Action Center in Windows 10
The Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.
All editions can use Option Twp below.
1 Open the all users, specific users or groups, or all users except administrators Local Group Policy Editor for how you want this policy applied.
2 In the left pane, click/tap on to expand User Configuration, Administrative Templates, and Start Menu and Taskbar. (See screenshot below)
3 In the right pane of Start Menu and Taskbar, double click/tap on the Remove Notifications and Action Center policy to edit it. (see screenshot above)
4 Do step 5 or step 6 below for what you would like to do.
A) Select (dot) either Not Configured or Disabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)
Not Configured is the default setting.
7 When finished, you can close Local Group Policy Editor if you like.
8 Restart explorer, sign out and sign in to Windows, or restart the PC to apply.
The downloadable .reg files below will add and modify the DWORD values in the registry keys below.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
DisableNotificationCenter DWORD
0 or delete = Enable
1 = Disable
1 Do step 2 or step 3 below for what you would like to do.
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Enable_Action_Center.reg
Download
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Disable_Action_Center.reg
Download
4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.
6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
7 Restart explorer, sign out and sign in to Windows, or restart the PC to apply.
8 You could now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
That's it,
Shawn
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