Windows notifications are meant to make life easy. However, for most people, they are nothing more than an annoyance. Having messages pop up every now and again, can be trying at the best of times. On top of that, you also get a ding with each message. The good news is that you don’t have to bear with this. There is a simple way through which you can turn off notifications on Windows 10. So, how do you do it? How do you close notifications on Windows 10? In this article, we show the following;
- How to close notifications on Windows 10
- How to permanently disable ALL Windows 10 notifications
- How to disable SOME Windows 10 notifications
How to Close Windows 10 Notifications
In this section, we show you how to close Windows 10 notifications. The assumption is that you have received a notification and you simply wish to close it. That’s a simple enough task. It does not permanently disable notifications, however. If you wish to permanently disable notifications on your computer, scroll to the next section in this article. To clear all Windows 10 notifications; you need to take the following steps;
- Click on the notifications icon to the bottom right of your computer.
- In the notifications pane, click on Clear all notifications.
How to permanently disable ALL notifications on Windows 10
More than likely, you don’t simply wish to close notifications on Windows 10. What you wish to do is to permanently turn off all notifications on your Windows 10 computer. So, how do you do that? To permanently close notifications on Windows 10, you need to take the following steps;
- First, go to the bottom right of your screen and click on the notifications icon.
- Next, click on Manage notifications to the top right of your screen.
- You will now be taken into the Notifications & actions window.
- To permanently disable notifications on your Windows 10 computer, click on the small Get notifications from apps and other senders, button.
- Make sure that the button is on the Off position and you will no longer receive notifications on your PC.
How to turn off SOME notifications on Windows 10
This article is on how to close notifications on Windows 10. The assumption is that you have become so annoyed with notifications that you wish to turn them all off. However, you don’t have to do this in most instances. Windows allows you to turn off only a few notifications. Fact is, there are some notifications that you may be willing to tolerate. As an example, you may be willing to get mail notifications. So, how do you turn off some notifications on Windows 10?
- Click on the notifications icon to the bottom right of your screen.
- Click on Manage notifications to the top right.
- In Notifications & actions, leave Get notifications from apps and other senders in the On position.
- Scroll down to Get notifications from these senders.
- Switch off those notifications that you do not wish to get.
What notifications are available?
The above is how to close notifications on Windows 10 selectively. It allows you to choose which notifications you wish to get and which you wish to turn off. But which notifications are available for switching on and off? Things will be a bit different depending on the apps that you have on your computer. However, the following are some of the notifications that you can selectively enable or disable on Windows 10;
- Cortana
- AutoPlay
- Security and Maintenance
- Settings
- Microsoft Edge
- Focus assist (via Cortana)
- Storage settings
- Audio
- Display Settings
- Feedback Hub
- Google Chrome
- Print Notification
- Skype
- Xbox Console Companion
- Xbox Game Bar
How to disable notification sounds Windows 10
Sometimes, you only need to disable notification sounds. Perhaps they are what annoy the heck out of you. So, what do you do? To disable notification sounds on Windows 10, you need to take the followings steps;
- Click on the notifications icon to the bottom right of your screen.
- To the top right of your screen, click on Manage notification.
- Now you need to untick Allow notifications to play sounds.
Why would you need to close notifications on Windows 10?
This article has been on how to close notifications on Windows 10. Interesting choice of keyword, but really it’s all about how to permanently disable Windows 10 notifications. If all that you wish to do is to close notifications, simply hover your cursor on the notification and click on the X to its top right to close the notification.
As for completely disabling notifications, this may be something that you wish to do to stop disruptions while doing your work. This is something that we have already noted. Notifications are good to have, but they can be rather intrusive.
The good news is that, as already noted, you can choose to selectively switch off Windows 10 notifications. That way, you will be left with only those notifications that you wish to see on your screen. For example, you can switch off everything other than mail.
Notifications can also be a drain on your computer’s data. That’s particularly the case if you are on a metered network. In that case, you don’t want to have apps download lots of stuff in the background. Of course, you can stops apps from downloading background data. But there are some that seemingly ignore this setting. So, disabling individual apps tends to be the best solution.
Completely disabling Windows 10 notifications vs turning off some of them
In the above sections, showed you 3 ways through which you can deal with notifications on Windows 10. First, we showed you how to close notifications on Windows 10. Closing in the sense that when a notification pops up you click on the X and its removed from your notifications bar.
Next, we showed you how to permanently disable all notifications on Windows 10. This is what most people seek to do. They don’t want to have their work or whatever else it is that they do on their computers disrupted. So, they want to completely shut down notifications.
Finally, we showed you how to selectively disable some notifications on Windows 10. You can do this for notifications coming from various apps. These include mail, audio and other apps that are on your computer.
It’s best to selectively disable Windows 10 notifications
So, which option is the best? That’s a question that we get a lot from people. In most instances, it’s not enough to close notifications on Windows 10. If you do that, you will only have removed one notification. Others will keep on coming up. So, that’s a temporary solution.
It’s way better to, in our view, selectively close notifications on your computer. That’s particularly the case if you use your computer for work. You don’t want to completely shut out everything. Otherwise you are going to miss out on important matters. As an example, you can choose to disable everything while continuing to receive mail notifications. That way, you won’t miss out on important mail.
