With Windows 8, Microsoft has introduced a new notification system: instead of balloon tooltips in the tray, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 use toast notifications, which appear on the right side of the screen and fade away after some time.
There is a setting called 'Show app notifications' inside the PC Settings app which allows you to disable toast notifications. In Windows 8, it is located at PC Settings -> Notifications. In Windows 8.1, Microsoft has redesigned the PC Settings app, so you need to go to PC Settings Search and Apps -> Notifications.
Here are step-by-step simple instructions to disable them using the PC Settings app:
- Press the Win+C shortcut on the keyboard. The Charms Bar will appear on the screen.
- Click the 'Settings' gear icon and click the PC Settings item at the bottom of the screen.
- Go to PC Settings -> Notifications section, if you are in Windows 8 RTM, or PC Settings Search and Apps -> Notifications in case of Windows 8.1
- Turn off the 'Show app notifications' option:
If you are using Windows 8.1, you can bring up these settings directly with a special shortcut. See how to create a shortcut to open Notifications in Windows 8.1.
Alternatively, you can apply the following registry tweak to your OS:
- Open Registry Editor (see how).
- Go to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PushNotifications
Tip: You can access any desired Registry key with one click. If this key doesn't exist, just create it.
- In the right pane, modify the ToastEnabled value and set it to 0. If this value does not exist, you should create a new DWORD value and name it ToastEnabled. This DWORD value is responsible for the state of the toast notifications feature. Set it to 0 to disable toast notifications. To enable them again, set it to 1.
Bonus tip: To resize all columns to fit quickly in the right pane of Registry Editor, please refer to the following article: Use this secret keyboard shortcut to fit all columns in Explorer and other apps.
Download ready-to-use "Disable toast notifications" registry tweak.
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Unfortunately this does not work.
It only works with a DWORD value called “NoToastApplicationNotification”.
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/7621-toast-notifications-enable-disable-windows-8-a.html
To get this tweak working instantly, you need to restart Explorer.
I even restarted my PC and it didn’t work for me.
Not until I changed the name of the DWORD value.
Hmm ,this is very strange!
I will add the group policy trick to the article.