When you're poking around Windows 10, you'll notice something new: A small taskbar button that, when clicked, reveals a sidebar full of app notifications.
Welcome to the new Action Center, which is basically the Windows 10 version of the Action center in Windows Phone 8.1. The Action Center is part of Microsoft's dream of "Windows everywhere" -- it's a universal notifications hub that will pop up your app notifications across multiple platforms. Because who doesn't want to be alerted about new Twitter followers on their phone, tablet, and now PC?
The new Action Center consists of two parts: The notifications area at the top, and the "quick actions" bar at the bottom. In the notifications area you'll see notifications from various apps, including Twitter, Facebook and your email account, as well as notifications from phone apps (e.g., alarms) if applicable.
You can dismiss notifications three different ways: You can mouse over the app name (Twitter) and click the X next to it to dismiss all notifications from that app. You can also mouse over each individual notification and click the X next to it to dismiss that specific notification. Or you can click Clear All in the upper right corner of the notifications center to dismiss all notifications from all apps. Because this is a "Windows everywhere" feature, notifications you dismiss in the notifications center will also be dismissed on your other Windows devices, such as your phone.
In the quick actions bar, you'll see four quick-access buttons as well as an Expand link. Click Expand to see all quick actions. Actions include things like aTablet Mode toggle button, a link to the Display settings, a link to all settings, and toggle buttons for Locationand Wi-Fi. Tap a quick action button to toggle a setting (tablet mode, location, Wi-Fi) on or off, or to go directly to the settings menu so you can configure your display, connection, or VPN.
To choose which quick actions appear above the break, go to Settings > System > Notifications & actions > Choose your quick actions. Here, you'll see four small buttons that you can click on to swap out actions. If you'd prefer to have your Wi-Fi toggle on hand whenever you open the notifications bar, you can switch it for the Display button. Of course, you'll always be able to see all of the quick actions by clicking Expand in the notifications bar.
Here, you can also choose what types of notifications you want to see in your Action Center, including "tips about Windows" and "app notifications," as well as what types of notifications you want to see when your device is locked (alarms, reminders, etc.) There's also a toggle switch that allows you to hide notifications when you're presenting, which is a nice touch -- nothing kills a slideshow like a thousand incoming notifications about your Twitter feed.
Under Show notifications from these apps, you can also pick and choose which app notifications you'll see in the notifications bar.
To turn off notifications for a specific app, find the app in the list and click its toggle to Off. Click the app name to open up the Advancednotifications settings for that app. Go into Advanced to turn off specific notifications for that app -- either banner notifications (pop-ups in the lower right corner of your screen), notifications in the notifications center, or notification sounds.
In the Notifications & actions section, you can also clean up your taskbar by clicking "Select which icons to appear in the taskbar" (you can turn on and off things like the Network icon and the Volume icon), or by clicking "Turn system icons on or off." In "Turn system icons on or off," you can turn off the clock, input indicator or action center -- in other words, you can turn off all system tray icons and have a completely icon-less system tray, if you so choose.
Editors' note: This How To post was originally published on March 23, 2015, and has been updated to reflect new information regarding Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview Build 10166.
