Windows 11 notifications can interrupt your work constantly — Teams messages, news alerts, app updates, and system messages all compete for your attention. This guide covers every way to control them: turning off notifications for specific apps, enabling Focus mode to block everything during deep work, and using Do Not Disturb to stop interruptions outside working hours.
How to Turn Off Notifications for a Specific App
- Go to Settings → System → Notifications
- Scroll down to the Notifications from apps and other senders list
- Find the app you want to silence and toggle it Off
This stops all notifications from that app — no banners, no sounds, no badges on the taskbar icon.
For more control, click on the app name instead of toggling it off. You can then choose:
- Whether to show notification banners (the pop-ups in the corner)
- Whether to show notifications in the notification centre (the panel on the right)
- Whether to play a sound
- Whether to show a badge on the taskbar icon (the number count)
- Priority — high priority notifications break through Focus mode
How to Turn Off All Notifications
- Go to Settings → System → Notifications
- Toggle Notifications off at the top
This silences everything at once. The notification centre is still accessible by clicking the date and time, but nothing will pop up or make sounds.
How to Use Do Not Disturb
Do Not Disturb stops notification banners from appearing while still letting them accumulate quietly in the notification centre. You can turn it on manually or set a schedule.
Turn On Manually
- Click the date and time in the bottom-right corner of the taskbar
- Click the Do not disturb (crescent moon) icon at the top of the notification panel
Or go to Settings → System → Notifications and toggle Do not disturb on.
Set a Schedule
- Go to Settings → System → Notifications → Turn on do not disturb automatically
- Toggle During these hours on and set your start and end times
Useful for automatically muting notifications outside work hours or during a recurring quiet period each day.
Automatic Do Not Disturb Triggers
Under the same menu, Windows can automatically enable Do Not Disturb when:
- Duplicating your display (e.g. presenting to a projector)
- Playing a game
- Using an app in full screen
- For the first hour after a Windows update restart
The When duplicating display option is particularly useful — it prevents notifications from appearing on a projector screen during presentations.
How to Use Focus Mode
Focus mode blocks notifications entirely for a set period and hides the taskbar badge counts. It is designed for deep work sessions where you do not want any interruptions.
- Go to Settings → System → Focus
- Set a Focus session duration
- Click Start focus session
During a focus session:
- Notification banners are hidden (they still go to the notification centre)
- Taskbar app badges are hidden
- A timer appears in the taskbar (optional)
- The Clock app can play focus music via integration with Spotify
You can configure what breaks through Focus mode by going to Settings → System → Notifications and setting specific apps to High priority — their notifications will still appear even during a focus session.
How to Control Notification Sounds
If you want to keep notification banners but stop the sounds:
- Go to Settings → System → Notifications
- Click the app you want to change
- Untick Play a sound when a notification arrives
To turn off all notification sounds at once, go to Settings → System → Sound → More sound settings. Under the Sounds tab, find Notifications in the Program Events list and set its sound to None.
How to Clear the Notification Centre
Click the date and time in the taskbar to open the notification centre. To clear all notifications at once, click Clear all at the top. To dismiss a single notification, click the X on the right of that notification.
Notifications for Specific Apps Worth Configuring
Microsoft Teams
Teams has its own notification settings that override Windows in some cases. Go to Teams → Settings (three dots → Settings) → Notifications to control which message types trigger alerts and whether to use Windows or Teams-style notifications. You can mute specific chats or channels directly in Teams without affecting the rest.
Outlook
Outlook email notifications can be turned off in Windows Settings as above, or inside Outlook itself: go to File → Options → Mail and untick Display a Desktop Alert under Message arrival.
Microsoft Edge
Browser push notifications are a common annoyance. To block them in Edge: go to Edge Settings → Cookies and site permissions → Notifications. Here you can block all notification requests or manage permissions per site.
