[Windows 10 Tip] Disable or Change Number of “Quick Actions” Buttons in Action Center

We know that Microsoft has replaced the annoying “Charms Bar” introduced in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 with the new “Action Center” also known as “Notification Center” in Windows 10 operating system. Action Center in Windows 10 is pretty much similar to notification center found in Google Android or Windows phones. It shows various notifications related to system events and apps and also helps users in accessing useful options such as Bluetooth, location, connect, settings, etc with the help of “Quick Actions” buttons.

By default total of 4 “Quick Actions” buttons are shown in Action Center and a collapse/expand button is given to access all “Quick Actions” buttons. Windows 10 also allows users to customize which 4 “Quick Actions” buttons should be shown in Action Center using Settings -> System -> Notifications and Actions page. On that page, you can choose which “Quick Actions” buttons do you want to show in Action Center.

But sometimes you may not need these “Quick Actions” buttons and you may want to remove the “Quick Actions” buttons from Action Center. Unfortunately Windows 10 doesn’t provide any built-in option to disable these “Quick Actions” buttons in Action Center.

Today in this tutorial, we are going to share a Registry tweak which will help you in disabling these “Quick Actions” buttons in Action Center. Using this Registry tweak you’ll also be able to change the number of “Quick Actions” buttons in Action Center. You can show only 1, 2 or 3 “Quick Actions” buttons in Action Center with the help of this trick. Thanks to our reader “Armond” for sharing this trick.

If you want to remove all “Quick Actions” buttons from Action Center or want to change the count of “Quick Actions” buttons in Action Center, 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:

3. In right-side pane, you’ll see PinnedQuickActionSlotCount DWORD. This DWORD determines the number of “Quick Actions” buttons to be shown in Action Center. By default the value of this DWORD is set to 4 which means 4 “Quick Actions” buttons are shown in Action Center and you can show all “Quick Actions” buttons using Expand button.

4. If you want to disable all “Quick Actions” buttons in Action Center, double-click on PinnedQuickActionSlotCount DWORD and change its value to 0

You’ll need to restart Explorer or log off to apply changes. You can restart Explorer using following methods:

[Guide] Different Ways to Close and Restart Explorer in Windows

That’s it. It’ll remove all “Quick Actions” buttons in Action Center as shown in following image:

5. If you want to change number of “Quick Actions” buttons in Action Center, double-click on PinnedQuickActionSlotCount DWORD and change its value to 1 or 2 or 3 to show 1, 2 or 3 “Quick Actions” buttons respectively.

PS: If you want to restore “Quick Actions” buttons in Action Center, change the value of PinnedQuickActionSlotCount DWORD to 4 again.

NOTE: If you are not familiar with Registry editing tasks, we are also providing ready-made Registry script to do the task automatically. Download following ZIP file, extract it and run the desired .REG file. It’ll ask for confirmation, accept it. Restart Explorer to take effects:

BONUS TIP:

If you want to completely disable Action Center and Notifications in Windows 10, following tutorials will help you:

• [Tip] Disable Notifications and Action Center in Windows 10
• [Windows 10 Tip] Remove Cortana, Microsoft Edge, Contact Support and Feedback Apps
• Collection of Windows 10 Hidden Secret Registry Tweaks