Focus Assistant on 1903

Greetings.

Can anyone help me figure out how the Focus assistant in Windows 10 build 1903 works exactly? Because right now I have it to"off" in the Setting menu, but everytime I do stuff it turns itself "on" by its own and keeps reminding me that "notifications will remain silent in the action center while you're in fullscreen mode". Here's how it behaves to me at the moment:

• Desktop only - Alarm Mode On (sleep symbol)
• Opening Edge - Focus Assistant Off
• Opening Settings - Focus Assistant Off
• Opening Mail - Focus Asistant Off

Everytime I close and open edge, system menu, mail, calender etc the notification center pops up this message. The way it worked before (on 1809) was that when I played games in fullscreen mode the sleep symbol on the action center became active, but everywhere else it was turned off. Now it seems to think that my desktop is in fullscreen mode? I don't understand how this works exactly. I can open and minimize Edge constantly and the sleep symbol in the bottom right corner will appear and disappear everytime.

Hello Faith,

Double check your automatic rules for Focus Assist to see how they are set. They will override, and could cause this.

Change Focus Assist Automatic Rules in Windows 10

Brink said:

Hello Faith,

Double check your automatic rules for Focus Assist to see how they are set. They will override, and could cause this.

Change Focus Assist Automatic Rules in Windows 10

Bree said:

Just turning off Focus Assist is probably not enough. I think you'll also need to check and turn off some of the automatic rules...


Change Focus Assist Automatic Rules in Windows 10

But what I don't understand is that it's turned on when I sit idle at desktop, even if the Settings menu says otherwise. There's no option for "desktop" that I can see in the Automatic rules. What do I need to disable here exactly? I wouldn't mind this behaviour (if it's normal) to keep my desktop pop-up-free, but it keeps reminding me everytime I open and close stuff, making the notification center white as if there's something new I need to click on.

As a test, turn off all automatic rules to see if Focus Assist continues to turn on like that.

It sounds like it may be the "When I'm using an app in full screen mode" automatic rule.

Brink said:

As a test, turn off all automatic rules to see if Focus Assist continues to turn on like that.

It does sound like some sort of notification setting instead though.

I disabled "app in fullscreen" in the Automatic Rules and it seems to behave what it used to do now. Can you (or anyone else) confirm that if you enable that slider does this happen to you aswell? So apparently my desktop is considered an app in fullscreen mode by MS?

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Yeah ms just needs a simple don't ever bug me setting

Amen.

If you have tablet mode turned on, I suppose it would consider your desktop to be full screen mode?

Brink said:

If you have tablet mode turned on, I suppose it would consider your desktop to be full screen mode?

I don't use a tablet. Where can I see if this is enabled? But I think you're onto something here though. Unless this is just a good 'ole bug from Microsoft, something may be running in the background that's in "fullscreen" on my desktop. Unfortunately I don't know what. This PC is completely clean. A possibility could be the Game Bar (Win+G) or GeForce Experience (Alt+Z), those seems to be running in the background all the time, but they aren't running in priority.

Turn On or Off Tablet Mode in Windows 10


There's also when you press F11 to toggle full screen mode for an app or window.