Notifications are useful for staying updated, but too many can become distracting. If you'd like to reduce interruptions on your Windows 11 PC, you can customize or turn off notifications entirely.

Disable All Notifications

If you want to stop all notifications from all apps, Windows 11 allows you to do so with a simple setting.

  1. Open the Settings app by clicking the Start button and selecting Settings.
  1. In the Settings window, click on System from the left sidebar.
  1. Select Notifications on the right side of the window.
  1. Toggle the Notifications switch to the Off position.

With this setting turned off, you won't receive any notifications from apps or senders.

Disable Notifications for Specific Apps

To stop notifications from certain apps while keeping them enabled for others, you can adjust individual app settings.

  1. In the Notifications settings, scroll down to Notifications from apps and other senders.
  2. Find the app you want to silence and toggle its switch to Off.

Silence Notifications Instead of Disabling

If you prefer to receive notifications without visual pop-ups or sounds, you can customize an app's notification settings.

  1. Click on the app within Notifications from apps and other senders to access its notification settings.
  1. Uncheck Show notification banners to stop visual pop-up notifications.
  1. If you don't want notifications to appear in the notification center, uncheck Show notifications in notification center.
  1. Toggle off Play a sound when a notification arrives to disable notification sounds.
  1. Under Priority of notifications in notification center, select the desired priority level for the app's notifications.

Utilize Focus Assist

Focus Assist helps you manage notifications by allowing only certain notifications during specific times or activities.

  1. In the Settings app, go to System and select Focus assist.
  1. Click the arrow next to Focus assist to expand its options.
  1. Choose Priority only to see notifications from apps on your priority list. Click Customize priority list to modify this list.
  1. Select Alarms only to hide all notifications except for alarms.
  2. To receive a summary of missed notifications, check Show a summary of what I missed when focus assist was on.
  1. Under Automatic rules, click on During these times to set up a schedule for Focus Assist.
  1. Toggle the switch to On, then set your preferred Start time and End time.
  1. Choose the frequency by selecting an option under Repeats.
  2. Select the Focus level by choosing either Priority only or Alarms only.
  1. Optionally, check Show notification in action center when focus assist is turned on automatically to be notified when Focus Assist activates.

By customizing these settings, you can manage notifications on your Windows 11 PC to minimize distractions and focus on what's important.