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How to Turn Off Windows 10 Game Bar Pop-Ups and Notifications

Trying to minimize notifications on Windows 10? This will help.
An Xbox One controller on a table
Credit: nexusby - Shutterstock

If you’ve been playing Xbox games on Windows 10, whether through Game Pass or otherwise, there’s a good chance you’re receiving notifications every time you unlock an achievement in a game. But once you start getting them, they’ll just keep coming—these notifications have even shown up on my Windows 10 PC when I’ve actually been playing on my Xbox. Luckily, if you’d rather not be bombarded with game achievement alerts (not to mention other game-related notifications), there is a way to turn them off.

Disable game notifications via the Windows 10 Game Bar

The quickest way to disable game notifications on Windows 10 is through the Game Bar. You can launch this by pressing Windows key+G on Windows 10.

When the Game Bar is open on your PC, click the gear icon next to the time in the menu at the top. This will open Game Bar settings in Windows 10.

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Windows 10 Game Bar settings. Credit: Pranay Parab

In the settings window, click Notifications in the left pane to check all Game Bar alert options.

You can now get rid of the alerts you don’t need. Let’s start by disabling Notify me when I unlock achievements, which will stop showing you Xbox achievement alerts on your PC. There’s another tweak labelled Hide notifications when I’m playing a full-screen game, which you might want to enable if you want a distraction-free gaming experience.

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Notification settings for Windows 10's Game Bar. Credit: Pranay Parab

The Game Bar app keeps asking me to submit feedback randomly, and the best way to disable those alerts is also on the same settings page. Disable Ask me for feedback about the app on this device.

Finally, under the Xbox Social header, there are a bunch of notification options, such as getting an alert when you get new messages or party invites. You can review and disable or enable these as you please, keeping only the notifications you actually want to receive.