How to Take Full Control of Notifications on Windows

All of the devices you own and every app running on those devices is eager for your attention, which can make it difficult to actually get anything done— and Windows is no different when it comes to regularly distracting you with pings and pop-ups. Leave the default notification settings in place, and it can get a bit overwhelming.

Windows does give you plenty of control over how notifications work, though, including which apps and system events are allowed to bother you and when—there are even various Do Not Disturb options and modes you can take advantage of. Here's how to set Windows 11 notifications up to suit you.

Notification settings

To get started with notification management, head to Settings from the Start menu, then choose System > Notifications. Right away you'll see a Notifications toggle switch: Turn this off and you won't be bothered by any notifications at all. You can also click on the Notifications heading to choose whether or not these alerts come with sounds attached and appear on the lock screen.

Further down the same screen you get a list of all the programs installed on your computer, where you can set the notification options for each individual piece of software. If there's an app you don't want to hear from at all, just turn the relevant toggle switch off. Alternatively, you can take more granular control over what each app can do.

The notification settings in Windows. Credit: Lifehacker

You can choose whether apps can show notification pop-ups, or have their alerts shown in the notification center (which appears when you click on the time and date in the lower right corner). You can also enable or disable sounds for an app's notifications, and choose the priority of its messages in the notification center: Top, High, or Normal.

Enable Allow app to send important notifications when do not disturb is on to give the program permission to interrupt you when Do Not Disturb is active (more on that in a moment)—what counts as an "important" notification is down to the developer. Note you can also manage an app's notifications from the notification center, by clicking the three dots on any of its alerts.

Do Not Disturb and Focus modes

The familiar Do Not Disturb mode, temporarily blocking notifications, is available on Windows: From the Notifications screen, you can either use the Do not disturb toggle switch to enable or disable it manually, or select Turn on do not disturb automatically, which lets you schedule the feature (and have it turn on automatically if you're gaming).

Click Select priority notifications and you're able to take more control over which apps can break through the Do Not Disturb restrictions. By default, reminders and alarms are on, for example, because you probably still want to see these—but you can disable them if needed. Any app can be added here, and all of its notifications will be allowed (not just the important ones, as covered by the setting mentioned earlier).

You can set Do Not Disturb to operate on a schedule. Credit: Lifehacker

Back on the Notifications screen, you can use the Focus option as an extension of Do Not Disturb: This lets you configure specific sessions of heads-down, notification-free Windows computing, and in addition to applying all the restrictions that Do Not Disturb puts in place, you can also stop badges and flashes appearing from programs on the taskbar. Focus mode will also put a timer on screen, if you want one.

To start a Focus session, choose how long you want it to last for, then click Start focus session. You'll notice it's also available in the notification center, where it's easier to access: Click the time and date in the lower right corner, set your timer, then click Focus. Windows opens up the Clock app, which manages the Focus feature, and your session will get underway.

Individual apps

As with Android or iOS on your phone, individual apps on Windows are going to come with their own notification settings you can use in addition to the ones available in Windows. For a truly customized notifications regime, you need to dive into the apps you use regularly, and maybe even into alert settings for individual websites.

Take Microsoft Edge, for example: Click the three dots (top right) then Settings, then choose Cookies and site permissions and Notifications to see which websites can and can't bother you. By default, sites will ask permission when they want to show notifications, but you can disable this so you're not even interrupted by any requests to display alerts.

Accessing site permissions in Microsoft Edge. Credit: Lifehacker

And you can dig down even deeper if you'd like to: Plenty of websites have notification settings of their own. There's not the space here to cover every single site out there, but Slack is one of them—if you click your workspace name in the top left corner and then Preferences and Notifications, you can set particular times when Slack isn't allowed to disturb you (independently of the settings in Edge and Windows).

The Microsoft Store is another Windows app with its own notification settings to dig into. Click your Microsoft account avatar (at the top), then choose Settings: Turn off the Notifications for app installations toggle switch and you won't be bothered whenever a program is updated through the Microsoft Store.

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