How to disable Notification and Action Center in Windows 10

The new Notification & Action Center in Windows 10 looks great. The Action Center is split into two major sections – Notifications and Quick Actions and lets you take a look at all the notifications from all different apps, and even the system. But if you wish, you can disable Action Center in Windows 10. Let us see how to do it by tweaking the Windows Registry.

Disable Notification & Action Center in Windows 10

First create a system restore point and then right-click on Start button to open the WinX Menu.

Select Run, and in the space provided, type regedit and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.

Having done that, navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

Now, right-click on the empty space in the right pane and select New > DWORD (32-bit).

Name it DisableNotificationCenter.

Now, double-click on it and give it a value of 1.

Click on OK and exit the Registry Editor.

By following these instructions, you will have disabled the Notification and Action Center in Windows 10.

Restart your computer to see the change.

You will find that the Action Center is missing from the taskbar!

To enable Action Center back, simply delete DisableNotificationCenter or change its value to 0 and restart your Windows 10 PC.

Read More

How to disable Windows Backup notification in Windows 7 and 8

By default, in Windows 8, Windows 7 & Windows Vista, Windows Backup notifies end-users to configure Windows Backup. Notifications can appear in the Action Center after seven days without having configured Windows Backup, or when an end-user attaches an external hard drive.

Disable Windows Backup Notification

If you do not intend to enable Windows Backup, and instead provide a third-party backup solution to end users, you may disable the Windows Backup notifications.

Windows Backup notifications are controlled by a registry key. This registry key is not present in default Windows installations. To disable Windows Backup notifications, you must manually add a registry key.

To do so, open regedit and navigate to the following location:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsBackup

Now under WindowsBackup, in the RHS pane, open a new DWORD and name it as DisableMonitoring, and set its value to ‘1‘.

Exit regedit.

If this key is set to 0, or if this key does not exist, then Windows Backup will display notifications to the end user to configure Windows Backup.

If this key is set to 1, and an end-user has not already configured Windows Backup, then notifications to configure Windows Backup will not be displayed to the end user in the Action Center, or when a user attaches an external hard disk.

Sourced from: Technet Libraries.

UPDATE: You can also do the following. Open Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Action Center\Change Action Center.

Check, un-check the options you want, click OK and Exit.

Read More

How to Disable / Enable the Windows Firewall When the Options Are Grayed Out

There are many situations in which a user may need to disable / enable the Windows Firewall application. However, a common problem is the disabling of the ability to turn the firewall off from the graphical application. Users will see that any option available is grayed out, and nothing can be chosen. However, the firewall can be disabled through another route.

Note: Before you start save the registry preferably on a separate media from the computer hard drive. This will be used in the event of an unrecoverable error.
Launch the regedit application. This application can be launched by clicking on the "Start" button in Windows, and typing "regedit" into the "Run" box.
Export the registry. This can be done by clicking on the "File" menu option of regedit, then clicking on the "Export" option. A dialog box will open requesting the location for saving the registry.  

Locate Windows Firewall by following this path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall.

Delete the "WindowsFirewall" branch by right-clicking on the "WindowsFirewall" branch and choosing the option to delete. Answer the confirmation to complete the deletion and Restart Windows.

 

After the reboot open the Windows Firewall application by double-clicking on the icon for Windows Firewall in Control Panel. The options will no longer be grayed out, allowing the firewall to be turned off / on by selecting the appropriate radio button next to the option.

Click "OK" to save the settings.

Read More

How to reduce the size of CBS.log file

The SFC.exe program writes the details of each verification operation and of each repair operation to the CBS.log file. The CBS.persist.log is generated when the CBS gets to be around 50 meg in size. CBS.log is copied to cbs.persist.log and a new cbs.log file is started.

It would be useful only for troubleshooting issues. If you are sure your system is running fine, you can delete this file. SFC.exe will create a new one, next time it is run.
I have used following method to delete:

1. Stop TrustedInstaller.exe (Windows Module Installer) in Taskmanager Services tab. Additionally if you cannot, open the Taskmanager Processes tab and End Task the same process.
2. Delete or move all the .log files in the C:\Windows\Logs\CBS directory, you can delete the .persist and .cab files as well.
3. Start Windows Module Installer service (TrustedInstaller.exe) again.



NOTE: The new created log files should not get bigger than 50MB

Read More

Prevent Windows From Restarting Your PC After Windows Updates

Using the Group Policy editor:

Have you seen that message in Windows 10 that tells you your computer is going to reboot and there is not a thing you can do about it except save your work?

Here’s how to make sure that never happens again. This tip works for Windows 8 and 7 as well.

Press the Win + R keyboard combination to bring up the run dialog then type gpedit.msc and press enter.

When the Local Group Policy Editor opens, navigate to:

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update

On the right hand side you will see a setting titled:

No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations

Double click on it.

From here you will need to enable the setting by changing the radio button from “Not Configured” to “Enabled”, then clicking apply.

As always, I recommend you force a Group Policy update so that the changes will reflect immediately.

That’s all there is to it.

Using the Registry:

If your version of Windows 8 doesn’t ship with the Group Policy editor, you can always use the registry to disable these reboots. Again press the Windows + R keyboard combination to bring up a run box – type regedit then hit enter.

Now navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU

Note: If you don’t see the Windows Update or AU keys you may have to create them.

Then create a new 32-bit DWORD called NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers.

Then double click on it and give it a hex value of 1.

Note: Reboot is requered.

Read More