What is Action Center?

Action Center is a central place to view alerts and take actions that can help keep Windows running smoothly.

Action Center notifies you when items need your attention

Action Center lists important messages about security and maintenance settings that need your attention. Red items in Action Center are labeled Important, and indicate significant issues that should be addressed soon, such as an outdated antivirus program that needs updating. Yellow items are suggested tasks that you should consider addressing, like recommended maintenance tasks.

• Click to open Action Center.

To view details about either the Security or Maintenance section, click the heading or the arrow next to the heading to expand or collapse the section. If you don’t want to see certain types of messages, you can choose to hide them from view.

Get a quick summary of your computer's status

You can quickly see whether there are any new messages in Action Center by placing your mouse over the Action Center icon in the notification area on the taskbar. Click the icon to view more detail, and click a message to address the issue. Or, open Action Center to view the message in its entirety.

If you’re having a problem with your computer, check Action Center to see if the issue has been identified. If it hasn’t, you can also find helpful links to troubleshooters and other tools that can help fix problems.

Note

• If a task or setting is unavailable, it might have been turned off by your system administrator. For more information, see Why won't Windows allow me to change a system setting?

Why won't Windows allow me to change a system setting?

If your computer is part of a network at an organization such as a school, government agency, or business, your organization's system administrator might have disabled or even removed certain settings by using Group Policy. Group Policy is a feature of Windows that lets system administrators manage users' access to Windows features. If you suspect that Group Policy is preventing you from changing a setting that you need to access, contact your system administrator.

If your computer isn't part of a network, a user with administrator privileges might have modified Group Policy on your computer to remove access to the settings. In this case, contact the administrator to modify the settings you'd like to change.

For more in-depth technical information about Group Policy, go to the Microsoft website for IT professionals.

• Install a program
• Change which programs Windows uses by default
• Make older programs run in this version of Windows