The Security Center in the Windows operating system runs a service in the background to keep a constant check on the security state of your computer. If it finds that the Windows Firewall, any AntiVirus software is not running or if it finds that Windows Updates has been disabled on your system, it automatically shows a notification to warn you about it, and offers recommendations to fix the situation.
Can you disable Security Center notifications in Windows?
In Windows 8.1, Windows 7, and Windows Vista, you could turn off, disable or suppress such Security Center notifications by configuring the Group Policy or editing the following Registry key values:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE \Microsoft\Security Center
Change the default value of the following DWORDs from 0 to 1:
- AntiVirusDisableNotify
- FirewallDisableNotify
- UpdatesDisableNotify
If you try to do this in Windows 11/10 it will not work.
This is because Microsoft identified a security vulnerability with these registry keys that allowed hackers and malware to hide Security Center warnings. Due to these security concerns, the functionality and underlying registry keys have been removed in Windows 10.
This post will show you how to disable the Action Center in Windows 10.
See these posts if:
Hi,
You can still disable them all together. Just not selectively anymore.
When a notification pops up, just right click it and select “Turn off notifications for this group”. Then they will never bother you again.
Furthermore, you can disable the Security Center service itself, using services.msc ? Security Center (wscsvc) ? Properties ? Startup type ? Disabled ? OK
It’s pointless to keep monitoring something that has a tray icon in the bottom right corner of my screen at all times already. I will notice immediately if the icon changes to show an error-state or disappears altogether.
Sincerely,
Daniel “3ICE” Berezvai
p.s.: And your almighty workaround linked in the fine print is disabling the ENTIRE action and notification center. What!? Then how will I get my email notifications, windows updates, game notifications, facebook comments and messenger chats!?
Daniel, I disabled the service, but now I am getting notifications that the Security Center Service is disabled.
Are you getting those?
No, because I disabled that notification as well.
Edit: I’m glad my information was used by at least one person. To disable that other annoying notification, right click it and select the line starting with “Don’t show…”
hey,
i just reinstalled w10 and got really annoyed by all these notifications so i came here and found your tip. thanks a lot good sir!
I found a solution to disable the “Security and Maintenance” tab in the Info Center of Windows 10:
GPO:User Conifguration -> Preferences -> Windows Settings -> Registry
Action: Replace
Hive: HKEY_Current_User
KeyPath: SoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionNotificationsSettingsWindows.SystemToast.SecurityAndMaintenance
Value Name: Enabled
Value type: REG_Dword
Value: 0 (HEX)
Thanks so much. This had been killing us.
Has this worked for you so far?
Is the name of the new key supposed to be “Windows.SystemToast.SecurityAndMaintenance” ?
If it doesn’t exist, yes. And you also need a new DWORD key named Enabled, too.
Windows.SystemToast.SecurityAndMaintenance – Enabled = 0 (DWORD)