[Windows 10 Tip] Disable Toast Notifications and Enable Classic Balloon Tips

In Windows 10, whenever a notification message is required to show to the user, its shown in the form of a toast notification. Toast notifications are a part of the new modern UI of Windows 10 which are shown in rectangular shape using slide-in and slide-out animation.

In older Windows versions such as Windows XP or Windows 7, these notification messages were shown as balloon tips. If you miss those classic balloon notifications and want to bring back classic balloon tip again in Windows 10, this tutorial will help you.

Today in this article, we are going to share a useful trick which will help you in disabling new toast notifications and enabling classic balloon tips in Windows 10 as shown in following screenshot:

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Toast_Notification_Balloon_Tips_Windows_10.png

If you also want to replace modern toast notifications with classic balloon tips in Windows 10, check out following simple steps:

You can restore classic balloon tips in Windows 10 using following 2 methods:

  • METHOD 1: Using Group Policy Editor (Gpedit.msc)
  • METHOD 2: Using Registry Editor (Regedit.exe)

So without wasting time let’s start the tutorial:

METHOD 1: Using Group Policy Editor (Gpedit.msc)

1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type gpedit.msc in RUN and press Enter. It’ll open Group Policy Editor.

2. Now go to:

User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Start Menu and Taskbar

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3. In right-side pane, double-click on “Disable showing balloon notifications as toasts” option and set it to Enabled.

Disable_Showing_Balloon_Notifications_as_Toasts_Windows_10.png

Apply the changes and it’ll immediately disable modern toast notifications and enable balloon tips in Windows 10.

PS: If you decide to re-enableĀ toast notifications in future, double-click on “Disable showing balloon notifications as toasts” option and set it to Not Configured again.

METHOD 2: Using Registry Editor (Regedit.exe)

If you are usingĀ Windows 10 Home edition, you’ll not be able to run gpedit.msc command because this edition doesn’t come with Group Policy Editor.

If you can’t use or don’t want to use Group Policy Editor, you can take help of Registry Editor for the same task. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type regedit in RUN and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

3. Under Windows key, create a new key and set its name as Explorer

4. Now select Explorer key and in right-side pane, create a new DWORD EnableLegacyBalloonNotifications and set its value to 1

Enable_Legacy_Balloon_Notifications_Windows_10.png

5. Restart your computer or restart Explorer to take effects.

PS: If you want to re-enable toast notifications later, either delete the EnableLegacyBalloonNotifications DWORD or set its value to 0.

NOTE: If you are not familiar with Registry editing and want a ready-made Registry script to do the task automatically, download following ZIP file, extract it and run the extracted REG file. It’ll ask for confirmation, accept it:

Published in: Windows 10

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. When using the reg-key , the hardware-removal button does not function anymore !
    The button does not show connected hardware anymore , had to disable this tweak.

  2. ^^ Its working fine here. This registry tweak will do nothing extra except replacing toast notifications with balloon tip.

  3. Tried this reg-tweak twice , still did not work !
    First it did, but after second time removing a USB-stick its not showing any hardware .
    I mean the hardware-removal icon in the taskbar.

  4. Which notification do you personally prefer VG? I like the classic balloon because it looks neat and fades out gradually which gives you time to read it and if you hover over it while it is fading out, it unfades again until you have read the notification. Then you can hover away. This is not the behavior I see with toasts. Also, only balloon notification is ever shown at a time and if your system is idle, the balloon appears and stays forever, it doesn’t go and hide unlike the toasts for which if you miss them, you have to open Action Center. I think Microsoft messed up notifications too in Windows 10.

  5. ” I think Microsoft messed up notifications too in Windows 10. ”
    They certainly did , coz this tweak does not work on my rig neither .

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