Windows 10 notifications not working

In Windows 10 notifications from apps, messages from Windows itself and also from other sources are all displayed through the Action Center on the bottom right of the taskbar. If these notifications aren’t displaying properly or at all, you’ll find several fixes you can try in this guide to get them working again.

Quick Jump:

• Changing background app settings
• Manually checking for updates
• Scanning files with SFC
• Scanning Windows with DISM
• Re-registering Action Center with PowerShell

One way to fix this is by changing settings for background apps:

This is done through privacy settings. Here’s what to do:

1. Open Windows Search by clicking on it or by pressing Win + S, begin typing “Settings” and then click on the entry named as such when it comes up.
2. Once in Settings, find and click on Privacy.
3. On the Privacy window, scroll down the menu on the left until you reach Background apps and click on it.
4. Now click on the switch under Let apps run in the background to toggle it On if not already. If it’s already set to On, toggle it Off and then back On again.
5. After doing this, restart your computer to make sure the settings apply.

If changing the background apps setting didn’t help, making sure Windows 10 has the latest updates installed may be the solution:

If you haven’t updated Windows 10 recently, there may be fixes available from Microsoft you haven’t installed yet. Even if you did update recently, manually checking for updates is still a good idea. Here’s how:

1. Open Windows Search by clicking on it or by pressing Win + S, begin typing “update”, then click on Check for updates when it comes up.
2. Now that you’re on the Windows Update window, click on the Check for updates button.
3. Windows will begin checking for updates. If any are found, it should begin automatically downloading and installing them. Wait for this to finish.
4. After the updates have finished installing, you will likely need to restart your computer. Click the Restart now button to do so.

Running the SFC tool may fix things if updating didn’t:

Problems with notifications and the Action Center can sometimes be due to corrupted files. These files can often be repaired with the SFC, or System File Checker. You can run it by doing the following:

1. Open Windows Search by clicking on it or by pressing Win + S, then begin typing “cmd”.
2. When Command Prompt shows up, right-click on it and then click on Run as administrator. You can also click on Run as administrator on the menu to the right if available.
3. Click Yes on the User Account Control window that comes up.
4. In the Command Prompt window type out or copy and paste the following command:

   sfc /scannow

   then press Enter.

5. The scanning process will begin. If any errors are found, it will try to repair them. This can take a while. Wait for it to finish.
   • Once it’s finished it will say if it found any errors or made any repairs.
6. Now restart your computer to make sure any repairs are fully applied.

If SFC wasn’t able to get notifications working again, the DISM tool may be able to help:

This is another tool that can repair the system and corrupted files. Here’s how to start it:

1. Open Windows Search by clicking on it or by pressing Win + S, then begin typing “cmd”.
2. When Command Prompt shows up, right-click on it and then click on Run as administrator. You can also click on Run as administrator on the menu to the right if available.
3. Click Yes on the User Account Control window that comes up.
4. In the Command Prompt window type out or copy and paste the following command:

   DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth

   then press Enter.

5. This process can take a while. Wait for it to finish.
   • Once done it will say whether or not any corruption was detected.
6. Now type out or copy and past this command into the Command Prompt window:

   DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

   then press Enter.

7. Once again, this process can take some time. Wait for it to finish.
   • When done, it will say whether the process was successful or not.
8. Once it’s done, restart your computer to make sure any changes are fully applied.

Re-registering the Action Center may be able to fix things if the previous methods didn’t help:

This can be done with a PowerShell command. Here’s how:

1. Open Windows Search by clicking on it or by pressing Win + S, then begin typing “powershell”.
2. When Windows PowerShell shows up, right-click on it and then click on Run as administrator. You can also click on Run as Administrator on the menu to the right if available.
3. Click Yes on the User Account Control window that comes up.
4. When the PowerShell window comes up, type out or copy and paste the following command into it:

   Get-AppxPackage | % { Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppxManifest.xml" -verbose }

   then press Enter.

5. The process will begin and a large amount of text will be generated in the PowerShell window. It may take a while. Wait for it to finish. You’ll know it’s done when the text stops being generated and the blinking cursor for entering commands comes back.
6. You can now restart your computer in order to make sure the changes take effect.

Hopefully one of these methods has gotten Windows notifications and the Action Center working as it should again. Feel free to leave any questions or comments below.