Change How Long to Show Notifications in Windows 10  

Brink said:

Hello tryit, and welcome to Ten Forums.

Could be a bug with Gmail notifications.

Do all other notifications use what you set for how long to show?

I used to get Dropbox notifications but turned them off a while ago. I just turned Dropbox notifications on to find out how long they appear on screen, but for some reason I don't get ANY notification after creating a new file in my Dropbox from my phone, which is strange. How can I easily test alerts for another app? I usually do not receive/rely on alerts for any of the apps that I use.

Brink said:

I usually use the "Alarms & Clock" app to set an alarm notification for testing.

Alarm clock notification stays on screen much longer and Gmail notification still goes away in 5 seconds. They do appear different visually on screen though, which seems strange to me. Seems like all Windows 10 notifications would look the same. For example, there is no "dismiss" option on the Gmail notification.

Brink said:

Odd. As a test, set "Show notifications for" to "5 minutes" to see is used. If not, try restarting the computer, and test again.

Do you have any 3rd party tweaking type programs installed that could be overriding this setting?

I actually do have it set to 5 minutes currently because I want it to stay there as long as possible. And unfortunately I did try restarting and the problem persists.

I have some limited customizations, but nothing comes to mind that would interfere with alerts like this. Seems isolated to Chrome(?). I was thinking it could be a setting in Chrome overriding Windows 10, but I don’t see anything there.

It’s not a critical bug, but it’s still a bit annoying. Appreciate your help! Have to step away for a bit, but will try any more suggestions!

- - - Updated - - -

Just found out that if you change the "show notifications for" setting to 5 minutes, the volume overlay on the top left of the screen is visible for about 12 seconds every time you change the volume. Thought it was worth pointing out to anyone who didn't know this.

I don't know why extending the duration of a notification from an app would in any way relate to how long the volume HUD stays on screen, but apparently it is somehow related. Changing it back to 5 seconds resolved the 12-second visible volume HUD.

Brink said:

Odd. Is this for Chrome?

Enable or Disable chrome.exe Volume Control and Media Key Handling

Nope, just the built in Windows 10 overlay volume bar slider with no "chrome.exe" medial controls text next to it. I have not enabled anything related to Chrome Volume Controls as your link shows instructions for.

EDIT: It does make some small amount of sense that the volume overlay stays on screen longer because the setting as described in Control Center is related to Accessibility and asks "How long should Windows notification dialogue boxes stay open?" However, I would argue that there should be a control that is only for app notifications and is not a universal setting for all alerts/overlays. (Also, it should not be in Settings and Control Center, one in a context of Accessibility and the other as just a Display setting, but both controlling the same function.)

The default time is 5 seconds. Entering anything lower then 5 seconds will still have a 5 second wait.

In Windows 10 version 21H2 you can have a wait shorter than 5 seconds.