Tips For Using Action Center in Windows 10

Action Center in Windows 7 and Windows 8 has been renamed “Security and Maintenance” in Windows 10. The Security and Maintenance window in Windows 10 has multiple options that can be used to configure Windows 10 to your liking.

A few important options available in the System and Maintenance window are explained below:

    ■To work in the Security and Maintenance window, you should be logged into an administrator account.
    ■From the desktop window, right-click the Start button (the button with the Windows icon) from the bottom-left corner of the screen.
    ■From the context menu that appears, click Control Panel.
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    ■Ensure that the View by type is set to Category from the top-right corner of the Control Panel window.
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    ■Click the System and Security category and then click the Security and Maintenance option.
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    ■The navigation pane (left pane) of the Security and Maintenance window contains a few links. Here’s what they do:
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      Control Panel Home – You can click this link to go to the Control Panel main window.
      Change Security and Maintenance settings – From the next window that comes up after you click the link, you can uncheck the checkboxes related to settings that cause notifications to pop up. The bottom of opened Change Security and Maintenance settings window also has some additional links. If not configured during the time of Windows 10 installation, you can use these links to enable or disable Customer Experience Improvement Program, Windows Problem Reporting, and Windows Updates.
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      Change User Account Control settings – This link, when clicked, opens a new User Account Control Settings window from where you can increase or decrease the UAC restrictions, or disable User Account Control altogether. It is recommended that you leave the default settings unchanged.
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      Change Windows SmartScreen settings – This link allows you to control how Windows 10 should behave when an unrecognized app is being installed on the PC. The default configuration is that your approval is needed before installing those apps.
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      View archived messages – From this link you can view all the problem reports that you sent to Microsoft.
      File History – This link is present at the bottom of the navigation pane of the Security and Maintenance window. Create a System Image Backup by clicking its link from the bottom of the navigation pane of the File History window that opens up. The File History window’s bottom left corner also contains the Recovery link that you can use to create a recovery drive, or restore Windows 10 to an earlier restore point or refresh or reset the PC to factory defaults.
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      Windows Program Compatibility Troubleshooter – In case any program fails to run in Windows 10 due to some compatibility issue, you can use this link to troubleshoot the problem and use the program flawlessly.

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    ■The right pane of the Security and Maintenance window contains the Troubleshooting link. You can click this link in case any troubleshooting needs to be done in your PC.
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    ■The Recovery link on the window allows you to create or restore System Restore Points. From here you can also reset or refresh your PC back to the factory defaults, and start over if you have messed the things up. (Same as Recovery description (same window) as the point 6-f above.)
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    ■The Security and Maintenance sections in the right pane are expandable and have various settings including configuring Windows Updates, disabling the notifications related to Windows Updates, firewall settings etc. (under the Security section). Or configuring and initializing automatic maintenance settings, enabling or disabling File History, etc. (under the Maintenance section).

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