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Windows 10 tip: Customize and rearrange the Quick Actions buttons

The Action Center pane hosts notifications, but it also includes a group of buttons that give you easy access to common tasks and settings. Here's how to personalize those buttons to match your preferences.
Written by Ed Bott, Senior Contributing Editor
customize-quick-actions.jpg

After removing unnecessary actions, drag the buttons here into the order you prefer.

Click to enlarge

You probably think of Action Center primarily as the place where you receive notifications. But that pane on the right side of the screen in Windows 10 is also home to a group of buttons that allow easy access to common tasks.

The Quick Actions buttons appear in a group at the bottom of Action Center. You can't change their location, but you can choose which buttons appear here, and you can change their order.

To begin, open Settings > System > Notifications & actions. That displays the current arrangement of Quick Actions buttons, as shown here.

One of the first things I recommend doing is to click Add or remove quick actions and eliminate buttons you don't need. The Mobile Hotspot button, for example, is only relevant if your Windows 10 device includes a cellular modem that you can share with a Wi-Fi adapter. On conventional PCs, you can safely turn it off.

Likewise, you're unlikely to ever need Airplane Mode on a desktop PC, so feel free to hide it as well.

Next, return to the Quick Actions list and drag the remaining buttons into the order you prefer. Keep in mind that you can collapse this grid to show only the first row of buttons, so make sure the four choices you use most often are in that top row.

Swipe in from the right side of the screen on a touchscreen device, or click the notifications icon to the right of the taskbar to access the Quick Actions buttons.

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