Alerts and Notifications:
There have always been pop-up messages in Windows but now there is a centralised way in which these are viewed and interacted with. Called the Action Center, it is designed to work more like the notifications panel on a smartphone or tablet.
Exploring the Action Center:
The new Action Center is a key interface element in Windows 10, providing you with access to Quick actions buttons as well as the notifications and alerts.
You can open the Action Center by clicking the speech bubble icon on the far-right of the taskbar or by pressing the Windows Key + A on your keyboard. If you hover the mouse pointer over the Action Center button, it will tell you if you have any new notifications.
Any notifications are grouped by app, with a heading showing which app they are from. Notifications will remain in the panel until you actively dismiss them or action them (click through to the apps).
Clicking on a notification will take you to the app that generated it. You can also interact with certain notifications within the Action Center panel. On this screen, you can see that the Calendar notification allows you to snooze it for various lengths of time.
You can also control whether or not an app sends notifications, or whether notifications are prioritised, from within the panel. Right-click on the app heading when a notification arrives and choose the desired option from the action menu that appears.
If you right-click on the actual Action Center button in the taskbar, you will see some different options in the action menu that appears. These include the option to turn on Quiet hours, show/hide app icons and show/hide the number of notifications on the button.
In addition to being displayed in the Action Center, notifications will create a pop-up window that appears at the bottom right of your screen. Clicking on these pop-up windows will also take you to the app that generated the notification (the Calendar app for example).
When you’re done with the notifications on the menu, you can click the Clear All button at the top to dismiss them. In Settings > System > Notifications and Actions, you can choose the Quick Actions that appear at the top of the bottom panel in the Action Center.
A very useful addition to the Action Center is the Quick actions panel at the bottom. This allows you to quickly perform some key functions (or actions) such as connecting to Wi-Fi. You can expand or collapse this bar by clicking the relevant heading.
The Quick actions panel contains the Tablet mode button. Tablet mode automatically prepares the desktop for use with a touchscreen and your fingers; perfect if using Windows 10 on a touchscreen laptop or tablet. Upon activation you will notice an instant change.
Whether you are on a Windows tablet or a laptop, at some point you will probably need to shut down the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (on an aircraft for example). Clicking Flight mode halts all wireless communication and places an aeroplane icon in your notifications area.
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