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Windows tip of the week

Edit the Quick Actions buttons


By Ed Bott


One of Windows 10's most useful time-saving features is the collection of Quick Action buttons that appear at the bottom of the Action Center. To see the full set of available buttons, click the Notifications action at the right side of the taskbar or, on a touchscreen-equipped device, swipe in from the right side of the screen.


To make these one-click shortcuts even more useful, I recommend that you head to Settings > System > Notifications & Actions for a few customizations.


Start by clicking the small Add Or Remove Quick Actions link below the display of icons at the top of this page. That opens the full list of available Quick Action buttons, with an On/Off switch alongside each one. Slide the switch to Off for any action you want to hide. For example, if you never use Windows' built-in VPN functions, you can safely turn off the VPN button.


After winnowing down that list, go back to the previous page and rearrange the display of icons so that the four options you use most often are in the top row. With that arrangement, you'll always be able to toggle your favorite settings, even if the Quick Actions pane is collapsed to a single row.

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