Do not disturb allows you to avoid distracting notifications when you need to stay focused. It's set by default to activate automatically when you're duplicating your display, playing a game, or using an app in full screen mode. You can control any or all of these, as well as determining to what level notifications are suppressed.
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Select Start > Settings > System > Notifications .
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To turn on Do not disturb, select On.
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You can also turn on do not disturb automatically. In Turn on do not disturb automatically, choose specific times to turn it on or specific certain conditions when you want it turned on.
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When do not disturb is on, the notification center icon will change and hide any incoming notifications.
Support for Windows 10 will end in October 2025
After October 14, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide free software updates from Windows Update, technical assistance, or security fixes for Windows 10. Your PC will still work, but we recommend moving to Windows 11.
Focus assist (also called quiet hours in earlier versions of Windows 10) allows you to avoid distracting notifications when you need to stay focused. It's set by default to activate automatically when you're duplicating your display, playing a game, or using an app in full screen mode. You can control any or all of these, as well as determining to what level notifications are suppressed.
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Select Start > Settings > System > Focus assist, or, in the search box on the taskbar, type focus assist and then select Focus assist from the list of results.
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To set the current state of focus assist, select Off (receive all notifications), Priority only (see only notifications from a list you can customize to your liking), or Alarms only (hide everything except alarms).
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Under Automatic rules, you can determine the conditions that cause focus assist to activate automatically. Select the item to turn that condition on or off and to determine the time and/or level of focus assist that condition activates, or just select the switch as a shortcut to turning a condition on or off. (To completely deactivate focus assist, turn all of these off.)
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Select Show me a summary of what I missed while focus assist was on to be sent a notification when you exit from focus assist about what was redirected to Action Center. Deselect this to deactivate this notification.
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When focus assist turns on automatically, by default a notification appears in the action center explaining that focus assist is on and suppressing notifications. If you would prefer not to see this message, click the Change focus assist button in the notification, and uncheck Show a notification in action center when focus assist is turned on automatically in the Settings page that launches.
