Or empty the list all at once by clicking Clear all notifications.įurther down the screen, you’ll see a full list of apps and system utilities, like volume adjustments. You can dismiss them individually by clicking the Dismiss X button in the top-right corner. As alerts about completed virus scans or new emails come in, they show up in pop-up boxes in the lower right-hand corner.

To pull up all your notifications in one place, click the Action Center icon, a small dialog-box symbol in the lower right-hand corner. Microsoft’s Windows notifications appear in a panel on the right side of the screen called the Action Center. Here’s how to configure which apps can display alerts, set times when interruptions are forbidden, and clean up that list of notifications.

That’s why operating systems like Windows and macOS come with built-in controls for taming the number of messages that intrude on your screen. But if you enable alerts from all of your applications, the barrage of new information can overwhelm and distract you at the worst possible times. Notifications pop up on your computer screen to tell you about important security updates, messages from friends, or even tweets.

Microsoft surface action center