How to change your Quick Action buttons in Windows 10

By Mark Guim
published

Quick Actions are a set of buttons which let you quickly open things or switch settings on or off in Windows 10. You can see the Quick Action buttons at the bottom of Action Center, which appears when you swipe in from the right edge of the screen. There are 13 Quick Action buttons, and you can customize which four buttons appear on top. We'll show you how.

  1. Open Settings. You can use the keyboard shortcut, Windows key + I
  2. Go to System > Notifications & actions
  3. Choose your quick actions

Windows 10 Quick Actions

That's it! The four you've selected will appear on top of the other Quick Action buttons. They'll also stay visible even when you choose to collapse Quick Actions in Action Center.

My top four Quick Action buttons are: Tablet mode, Rotation lock, Brightness, and All settings. What are yours? Let us know in the comments!

If you think this guide is helpful, we have many more posts like this in our Windows 10 help, tips and tricks page.

Mark Guim
Mark Guim

Mark Guim is Video Editor at Windows Central. He switched to Windows because the MacBook Pro isn't Pro enough. You can follow him on Twitter at @markguim.

50 Comments
  • Off Topic, but worth knowing-- http://winphonehub.org/news-leaks/windows-10-mobile-build-10240-allows-d...
  • Seriously, that shouldnt even be worth mentioning. It was poor form it wasnt added in all the years WP was out, its nothing to shout about at all.
  • It's not for iSheeps but for WP users. If not you, but surely some other user will rejoice hearing that news.
  • All these articles yet here I am sitting with a gtx 970 with no games supporting dx12...cant wait to see what difference that brings..
  • But I think it was a good feature. Because if something happens to the power button, removing battery can shut it down and plugging in can turn it back on.....:) Sadly not anymore......:(
  • I think you can blame this on Nokia, as my old WP7 based HTC Trophy charged while turned off.
  • I'd personally like the Brightness quick action to include 0% in its rotation. Right now, it cycles through 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% when you keep tapping it. It'd be great if they could add 0% to that rotation, so I can easily dim my screen at night, instead of having to tap and hold to open the full settings menu. Likewise, it would be great if this exact behavior could be copied over to Windows 10 Mobile, so we can get more fine and granular control over the screen brightness.
  • 25% is the lowest or not..?
  • Nope. If you go into Display settings on Windows 10, you can slide it all the way down to 0%. This will be reflected on both the Battery status indicator on the task bar, and in the brightness quick action. (Yes, I realize technically 0% brightness means the display is off, but Microsoft has it programed as how dim the display can get without being off)
  • Your request must be heard.
  • Agreed - or just bring back the slide toggle for granularity.
  • That would obviously be best, but alas, it doesn't fit with the new design, so I'm skeptical we'll get it. :/
  • I agree!  Hopefully they add this in October!
  • The slider from 8 is much better!
  • 13? I only have 12....
  • It depends on hardware
  • I barely use those quick toggles. Laptops basically don't need such quick toggles. They already have various such shortcuts accompanied by the "Fn" key. Including a better control over screen Brightness. The quick toggles can only adjust in multiples of 25.
  • Yea, but where are the keyboard shortcuts for the rest of these options like Tablet Mode? Without keypresses we can't assign them to mouse buttons or keyboard function buttons. I have no clue why this was missed, except to say that seems to be a 'key' element of the W10 experience in general.
  • Why would you use Tablet mode on a laptop/desktop PC unless it's convertible??
  • Agreed for Desktops & certain Laptops. I wish I could hide them completely on my Desktop as they serve no purpose.
  • Quick toggles on the surface keyboard aren't working for me anymore for brightness.
  • YES! I can collapse them afterwards!
  • I don't understand whey they removed the Charms stuff. They could easily have merged it into this Action Center. I really miss swiping in from right (or hot corners with a mouse) bringing out the Charms menu and managing settings or shutting off the PC. Most annoying about the Action Center is that it only pops out on the main monitor, instead of the monitor you perform the action on.
  • I know, feels like a step back. Swiping from the right on the track pad does nothing now :(
  • Really? I swipe from the right and it brings up Cortana! From the left! Very random. I wish a swipe brought up the actions, if only.
  • You might want to check how things are configured in your Mouse + Trackpad settings.
  • It's not the same, but you can do Win + H
  • Not many track pads have a Win or an H key though...
  • what about the other rows?
  • I have a question: I have a desktop PC with a resolution of 1920x1080 (on a 27" screen) but I only get two rows of icons. I have seen other devices with smaller screens have up to four rows. Why!?! Is there any way of changing this?
  • I've noticed that too. I also don't get nearly as many quick actions as I'm seeing here. Maybe many of those are device specific?
  • The only way is to decrease the zooming to 100% or 125%. You will then get more columns but it will also be harder to read the text as its very small (It's the same problem on Surface Pro1 and 2).
  • My Zoom is currently set on 100% (I can see everything fine too), still only two columns...
  • MS needs to separate desktop and metro scaling.
  • Wow that was so helpful
  • I'm just amazed it's not another gaming story.
  • I wish they would allow you to organize the other quick actions as well, they just seem to be in random order.
  • I'm still looking for how to organize my favorites.
  • Can I add Volume - or WiFi networks in here?
  • Volume and Wi-Fi are on the taskbar, you can see them in the image. A press on the icon brings up the options for that setting. The volume brings up a slider and the mute button, Wi-Fi brings up available networks, airplane mode toggle and a link to the full network settings menu. If you are in tablet mode, a swipe up from the bottom shows the taskbar.
  • This is a pain though when you are watching video in full screen. In Windows 8 you could swipe left to bring up the menu and adjust the volume. Now you have to exit full screen and click on the volume icon on the task bar, which in itself is more difficult then in Windows 8. If we could add volume to the Action Centre it would be much easier
  • Hey! This is a great tip! Thanks!
  • How do you get rid of the other 9?
  • You can't get rid of them but you can collapse them so they won't bother you anymore.
  • I have left my action buttons unchanged. I like the fact that there is more buttons , unlike the simple four to choose from.
  • Relax...
  • I just disabled that annoying thing.
  • I dont use the vpn button. Would it be possible to hide or replace it.
  • All I want to know is how to disable that COMPLETELY.  It is annoying and unnecessary.
  • Have a yoga 2 laptop have updated all necessery drivers but the rotation lock is grey out anyone had an idea where to look thanks