Customize Windows 7 Action Center Alerts

The Microsoft website describes the “Action Center as a central place to view alerts and take actions that can help keep Windows running smoothly”. While this is indeed true and informative for beginning Windows 7 users, in time the alerts can become annoyance. This article aims to explain the Action Center – how to customize the alerts, and even how to completely remove the action center flag from occupying another icon space in the busy task bar 


Click on the flag icon to view the alert details.


Open the Action Center by going to the Windows Start button, and then click on Control Panel, and click on Action Center

Also another alternative to opening the Action Center is by typing “Action Center” 

The Action Center is divided into two main alert sections – Security and Maintenance.


Action Center Security Options

Above is my personal and customized setting of the Security options in the Action Center.

My settings for the Firewall is set to default.

I prefer to use Avast anvitirus instead of the Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus. Since Avast updates on its own schedule, i have also set the antivirus alerts turned off. If you are keen on security, it would be best to leave the antivirus updates alert to be turned on for most home users.

I have set the Action Center alerts for Windows Update to off. I prefer to manually update on my convenient time. Since I have turned off the Windows Update function to off, the Action Center will still occasionally bug me that a security risk may be there due to outdated patches. Disable this alert permanently through the Action Center.

Action Center Maintenance Options

Above are my default settings for Maintenance options. I have turned off the alerts for Backup and Troubleshooting. Surely it is a good idea to be reminded of doing a backup, but I already use Dropbox and a slave hard drive for the automatic backup of my files.

Notice that I have encircled the part about “Check for solutions to problem reports”. This is important as I would like to turn off the annoying notice similar to the one below:

This error happens nearly every time when a hanged or frozen program has been terminated automatically or through the Task Manager.

Click on Settings

Feel free to choose your preferred setting.

Take note that sometimes, leaving Windows 7 to “allow automatic checking for solutions to problems” will actually work. I have experienced this with driver problems. Windows was able to detect that a newer version of the webcam driver is available. Since I allowed Windows to perform the checking and download, it was able to resolve the webcam driver problems.

We hope you find these tips for customizing the Action Center helpful and informative. Feel free to explore and learn more of the features of Windows 7 and the Action Center .